STUCK: Court Denies Motion to Stay FTSA Case Pending Potential Amendment After Legislative Session Ends

Add a comment

So quick one for you TCPAWorld.

Earlier this year there was a lot of buzz and excitement around a potential revision to the Florida mini-tcpa to address some of the more controversial (read: unconstitutional) provisions.

While the Florida Senate moved quickly to pass a bill that would have modified the FTSA in a few critical ways, the Florida House–where the powerful Florida trial bar holds more sway–passed its own bill that somehow managed to expand the FTSA even more.

Classic high-end litigator technique. Always come back over the top.

Unsurprisingly with the two houses of the Florida legislature diametrically opposed on needed relief both bills died without action.

Well during the sunny days of yesteryor (is that a word? I mean, even an old timey word?) at least one defendant moved to stay an FTSA case pending the potential amendment to the Mini TCPA. That was actually a really good move–until the Senate bill went nowhere.

Rather than withdraw the motion, however, the Defendant pressed that the case should STILL be stayed–even after the legislative session ended–because, hey “there’s always next year.”

Specifically, the Defendant argued the case should be stayed because “because the Florida Legislature is likely to consider the issue in the next legislative session.”

Hey, why not?

But the Court disagreed. With a cite to ole Rule 1–where are those cites when class counsel is demanding a billion ESI records be produced?– the court said it simply wouldn’t be consistent with the just speedy resolution of the case to stay it pending what the Florida legislature might do later.

The case is Zimmerman v. Assuredpartners, Inc., Case No: 8:21-cv-2155-CEH-SPF, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 64933 (M.D. Fl.  April 4, 2022),

 

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