Shelling it Out– New Ruling Shows CIPA Cases Can Be Even More Dangerous than TCPA (And I Take the Stage in an Hour!)

Add a comment

Quick one for you TCPAWorld.

In Collins v. Enver Solar, SACV19-00146-JLS-KES, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 115616 (C.D. Cal. May 26, 2021) we get a peek at how dangerous claims under California’s famous Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) can be.

The case law is in flux around CIPA–maybe I should start CIPAworld.com?–but the claims carry a $5,000.00 per violation price tag, which is literally 10x worse than the TCPA’s comparatively meager $500.00 base violation cost.

In Collins the Defendant fell into default–never a good idea–and the Court granted judgment on six (count ’em 6) phone calls. As to the TCPA the Court found the first call wasn’t a willful violation but all calls after Plaintiff allegedly asked for calls to stop were trebled. By my advanced mathematical calculations, that brings the TCPA judgment to $8k ($500 + $1,500(7)=$8,000.)

Meanwhile those same six phone calls–which were allegedly recorded by Defendant without consent in violation of CIPA–resulted in liability of $5,000.00 additional dollars each, or $30k total.

So overall judgment on six phone calls was $38k against the Defendant. Probably just disclose the call is being recorded next time– but be sure not to use a pre-recorded voice to do it!

For those of you in Austin, I will see you in les than an hour (hopefully.) Last night was pleasant enough–Nima and the crew are good company–but today is the show. Top hat and all that. I’ll do some coverage of the event later.

Categories:

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.

Leave a Reply