ARCHDUKE DELIVERS!: Squire Team Lead By Daniel Delnero Earns Critical Ruling that TCPA Is Unconstitutional!

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The wins just keep on coming for the Squire Patton Boggs TCPA defense team.

Often times deliver first in the nation results— but sometimes being third isn’t so bad.

Just today the team–in a defense lead by the powerful Archduke of the Realm— delivered a fantastic win for one the firms’ clients: a third-in-the-nation ruling that the TCPA is unenforceable as to calls made prior to July 6, 2020 because it was an unconstitutional content-specific restriction on speech. The ruling is Hussain v. Synergy, et al., Case No. 5:20-cv-00038-JSM-PRL, Doc. 74 (M.D. Fl. Dec. 11, 2020) and it is available here: Hussain

This ruling follows Creasy and Lindenbaum in determining that the Supreme Court’s ruling in AAPC definitively established the TCPA was rendered unenforceable following the addition of the government-backed debt exemption in 2015. That means the Court cannot enforce the provision–and TCPA defendants sued for calls made during that timeframe (including in class actions) are entitled to judgment.

In many ways Hussain is the best of the bunch. The ruling– issued by the esteemed Hon. James S. Moody–is clear, direct, and precise in its reasoning.

Hussain also suggests that the ENTIRE TCPA is unconstitutional: the “Supreme Court concluded that the TCPA was an unconstitutional content-based restriction as written when the statute was amended in 2015. To remedy the unconstitutional statute, the Supreme Court severed the government-debt exception from the TCPA and left the remainder of the TCPA intact.”

While many have fretted that AAPC only rendered the ATDS restrictions of 227(b) unenforceable, the language of Hussain clearly extends beyond that subsection.

Hussain represents the first court within Florida and in the Eleventh Circuit to reach this conclusion and is another critical ruling supporting the Creasy position. The score is now 3-0 in favor of Defendants arguing that the TCPA is unenforceable prior to July 6, 2020–and it looks like the position is really about to take off.

All thanks to Daniel of course!

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Published by Eric J. Troutman

The Czar of TCPAWorld Eric Troutman is one of the country’s prominent class action defense lawyers and is nationally recognized in Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) litigation and compliance. He has served as lead defense counsel in more than 70 national TCPA class actions and has litigated nearly a thousand individual TCPA cases in his role as national strategic litigation counsel for major banks and finance companies. He also helps industry participants build TCPA-compliant processes, policies, and systems. Eric has built a national litigation practice based upon deep experience, rigorous analysis and extraordinary responsiveness. Eric and his team feel equally at home litigating multibillion dollar telecommunications class actions in federal court as they do developing and executing national litigation strategies for institutions facing an onslaught of individual TCPA matters. They thrive in each of these roles – delivering consistently excellent results – while never losing sight of the client experience. While many firms now tout TCPA expertise, Eric has been there from the beginning. He built one of the country’s first TCPA-only defense teams and began serving as national TCPA counsel for his clients nearly a decade ago. This perspective allows him to swiftly develop the right litigation strategies for dealing with recurring problems, without wasting time on tactics that are bound to fail. Eric’s rich historical perspective and encyclopedic knowledge of the TCPA landscape also make him an invaluable resource to institutional compliance teams struggling to comply with the shifting regulatory landscape. No task is too small – or too big. Indeed, Eric and his team have helped build TCPA-compliant systems and processes for some of the largest and most complex corporate entities in the country. He commonly works with in-house compliance counsel to build and implement enterprise and business-line specific TCPA solutions, performs TCPA audits and drafts and reviews proposed TCPA policies and procedures. He and his team also have the technical expertise necessary to assist call centers seeking to develop TCPA-resistant call path architecture or to modify existing telephony and software integration to better insulate from potential TCPA exposure. Eric has built a reputation for thought leadership. An avid blogger and speaker, he has been at the forefront of the industry’s effort to push for clarity and a return to sanity for the TCPA for years. He was selected to advocate for the financial services industry on important TCPA issues before the Federal Communications Commission and co-authored the nation’s only comprehensive practice guide on TCPA defense. In his spare time, Eric leads defense teams representing banks and other financial services companies in consumer finance litigation matters. He has experience representing clients in UCC, TILA, RESPA FCRA, CCRA, CLRA, FDCPA, RFDCPA and FCCPA claims, as well as in fraud and bank operations issues.