(a) If a court as a matter of law finds a lease contract or any term thereof to have been unconscionable at the time it was made, the court may refuse to enforce the contract, enforce the remainder of the contract without the unconscionable term or so limit the application of an unconscionable term as to avoid an unconscionable result.
(b) With respect to a consumer lease, if the court finds as a matter of law that a lease contract or a term of the contract was induced by unconscionable conduct or that unconscionable conduct has occurred in the collection of a claim arising from the lease contract, the court may grant appropriate relief.
(c) If it is claimed or appears to the court that a lease contract or any term thereof, or any conduct that induced a lease contract or any term thereof or that occurred in the collection of a claim arising from the lease contract, may be unconscionable, the parties must be afforded a reasonable opportunity to present evidence as to the commercial setting, purpose and effect of the lease contract, term or conduct to aid the court in making the determination.
(d) In an action in which a lessee claims unconscionability with respect to a consumer lease, the following rules apply:
(1) If the court finds unconscionability under subsection (a) or (b) of this section, the court shall award reasonable attorney's fees to the lessee.
(2) In determining attorney's fees, the amount of the recovery on behalf of the claimant under subsection (a) or (b) of this section is not controlling.
(P.A. 02-131, S. 7.)
History: (Revisor's note: In Subsec. (a), “that” was deleted editorially by the Revisors after “matter of law finds” for grammatical accuracy).