“A VERY PROFESSIONAL JOB”: Credit One’s Counsel Commended By Federal Court as Plaintiff Accused of Manufacturing Case Has to Pay Another $73k

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So I sometimes take some heat for calling out bad lawyering out there. Unlike most attorney bloggers–who are probably afraid their own poor lawyering might one day come under scrutiny–I pull no (or at least few) punches when it comes to pointing out the mistakes that some lawyers make in either pursuing or defending TCPA cases. Some folks really don’t like that. But… that’s life.

Either way though it is only fair that when a lawyer does something really special in a TCPA case that they receive a little praise and admiration–I try to be even handed.

So my hat is off to Credit One’s lawyers for the great work they did in the Lieberman case. Its not every day that a federal judge heaps praise on a defense attorney:

The Court finds that the counsel for Credit One did a very professional job in this case, successfully arguing against the Liebermans’ opposition and obtaining judgment.

Now “very professional job” might not sound like high praise but federal judges generally do not characterize the lawyering before them in positive terms, so this is a real compliment.

And it seems well deserved. They really made this Lieberman fellow pay for (allegedly) setting up a TCPA suit, and that’s just the sort of thing I like to see.

I covered the background on the award here and the apparent scheme to manufacture lawsuits here.

So catching everyone up, Credit One sought to recover its attorneys fees and costs incurred in defending the arbitration on a theory that indemnity was owed for failing to provide a valid phone number. The arbitrator agreed and awarded $286,064.62

Credit One’s lawyers then successfully defended the award against the Plaintiff’s challenge to it in federal court. That was the story I covered previously.

And then–I love this–Credit One’s lawyers went back to court and asked the federal judge to award fees for the work they had done in federal court as well.

Crediting the findings the arbitrator had made below, the federal court ALSO granted Credit One its fees–heaping an additional $73,884.07 on top of the already massive arbitration award.

So the total judgment to be entered AGAINST the consumer who allegedly received 600 robocalls?

$359,948.69

Severed head, meet post.

Wow. Just wow.

There’s been some mighty fine results in TCPAWorld–I have a handful of arguably the greatest of all time–but this one is certainly up there.

I am extremely impressed with Credit One and their lawyers for delivering this great result.

And let this be a very public warning to anyone out there who is thinking of engaging in those sort of fraudulent behavior. There is no place for fraud or manufactured lawsuits in TCPAWorld. Someone will make you pay for it–and maybe not even me!

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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.

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