OVERTLY POLITICAL: Law Firm Appears to Have Declared TCPA War on the GOP

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As I’ve been reporting, there have been a spat of TCPA suits filed recently against Republican-leaning candidates and PACs. First the National Republican Senatorial Committee was sued.

Then it was sued again.

Then Save America and Donald J. Trump for President was hit.

The the RNC itself was sued. 

And just today “Team Graham, Inc.” –a PAC organized to help re-elect GOP Senator Lindsey Graham–was sued in a robocall suit in Texas. The complaint is here: Clifford complaint

So that’s 5 TCPA suits against right-leaning political organizations in 10 days or so. And while TCPA suits certainly impact candidates and campaigns on both sides of the aisle, this set of suits looks overtly political–especially considering that all of these suits are brought by a single law firm: Kimmel & Silverman, P.C.

According to their website, “Kimmel & Silverman employs a team of nine tenacious consumer attorneys licensed in 16 states. Together with a support staff of more than 30 paralegals, legal assistants, clerks, and administrators, Kimmel & Silverman remains the most experienced, most successful consumer warranty law firm in the nation.”

It has long been feared that the TCPA–which is the broadest restriction on political speech in American history– might be effectively wielded as a weapon of political warfare designed to silence politicians or parties for their views. And while those fears have not yet been substantiated–to date these lawsuits have been a near-random smattering balanced on both sides– this effort by K&S now appears to be definitively targeting Republican interests.

This is an extremely interesting development as the TCPA is being used here not just to punish certain speakers for expressing their political views using regulated technology, but it is plainly being deployed in a litigation campaign as a means of targeting specific speakers based on the content and viewpoint expressed in those messages.

If this doesn’t raise First Amendment concerns, nothing will.

I’ll continue to keep an eye on this as it develops. (Will also try to get Mr. Craig Thor Kimmel on the podcast to discuss.)

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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.

4 Comments

  2. The 1st Amendment does not allow someone to hijack the use of my phone to come into my home and speak things I prohibit them to. Free speech only exists in the context of a public domain. My home is my domain and no one but me has the right to free speech inside my home or when using MY telephone.

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