How San Diego County could soon crack down on polluters, landlords and insurers

Corporate landlords who engage in deceptive or illegal practices. Claim-denying health insurance companies. Industrial firms that supply the Mexican factories, or maquiladoras, that pollute the Tijuana River with toxic waste.

Such actors could soon be in the crosshairs of a new legal team one county supervisor wants to create for San Diego County.

Plans are underway to make county government the home of one of the nation’s largest local consumer protection units, an outfit that will be tasked with suing corporations for wrongdoing and securing major settlements for county taxpayers.

Board of Supervisors Chair Terra Lawson-Remer first teased creating the unit in a speech in April. Her staff has been drafting plans for it since.

In a recent interview, Lawson-Remer said she envisions the office acting as a “cop on the beat,” with a focus on the “broad ways in which we’ve got some big companies that are ripping off everyday people.”

“This is something we should have done a long time ago,” she said.

To fund the office, Lawson-Remer wants to tap a reservoir of roughly $200 million the county has won by signing on to consumer protection lawsuits over the years. Those funds can only be spent in certain ways — but litigation for enforcing civil law is one of them.

The county has bee...