UNWELCOME: First American Home Warranty Corp. and FiveStrata, LLC to Pay $700k to Settle TCPA Claim for Alleged Unsolicited Calls

3 Comments

Quick one for you folks.

First American and Fivestrata are the latest companies to feel the pain of a TCPA class settlement.

A federal court in Michigan approved a potential TCPA class action settlement involving the two on Friday.

The companies allegedly made illegal calls to 22,000 numbers on the national DNC list. The have agreed to settle the claims for $700k.

The TCPA allows individuals who have had their DNC rights violated to sue for up to $500.00 per call.

The Court granted preliminary approval determining the settlement–which comes in at around $32.00 a class member–was within the range of fairness for a settlement of this type.

The case is Kimble v. First American Home Warranty, 2024 WL 220369, Case Number 23-10037 (E.D. Mich. Jan. 19, 2024.)

Havent pulled the settlement yet to see if NCLC is a cy pres recipient. But I will.

More to come.

And if you’re interested in being up to date on all the big TCPA cases and trends be sure to request a FREE copy of the 2024 Troutman Amin, LLP TCPA Annual Review, presented by Contact Center Compliance!

SEVENTH DAY OF CZARMAS!: IT’S HERE IT’S HERE IT’S FINALLY HERE!!!!–2024 Troutman Amin, LLP TCPA Review, presented by Contact Center Compliance is AVAILABLE NOW (FREE!)

Chat soon.

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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.

3 Comments

  1. You know… I think class actions stink. The only people making money on them are the attorneys. The victims out there — the consumers that received the annoying calls — really get stuck. $32 each. Wow! By the time that the victims fill out the claim form and pay the postage to mail it in, they are in the red. But, the only good in all of this is watching the folks at First American Home Warranty having to shell out $700K for their misdeeds. Maybe if they had Troutman Amin as their attorney, they would learn how to fly right.

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  3. Oh, it gets worse…here’s the specifics:

    “The terms of the proposed settlement include the following:
     The defendants agree to create a settlement fund of $700,000 to pay class members’ claims, the cost of settlement administration, a representative service award, counsel’s attorney’s fees, and litigation expenses.
     None of the $700,000.00 will revert to the defendants.
     The settlement funds also will be reduced by no more than $18,000 for reimbursement of litigation expenses.
     The fee of the claims administrator, Atticus Administration, LLC., will be no more than $55,842.
     The named plaintiff will receive an incentive award of $5,000.
     The plaintiff and class members will release all asserted and potential claims arising out of the allegations in the amended complaint, but the defendants reserve the right to rescind the settlement agreement if more than 10% of the settlement class exercise their right to opt out of the class.
     All class members making timely claims will receive a pro rata cash payment of the net balance of the settlement fund, which the parties estimate will be approximately $90 to $110 based on an estimated 15 to 20% claims rate.
     Class counsel will seek attorney’s fees of no more than $195,000, which is 27.85% of the settlement fund.
    Plaintiff’s counsel also states that the claims rate in these cases often is substantially lower, which would make the individual pro rata distribution greater.”

    So after the mandated deductions of $274K that only leaves $426K to be divided up coming to $19/each (although the order is noting an est. 15-20% claim rate, and thus $90-110/each would would be very high compared to many/most).

    Do these typically only have a claimed percentage of 15-20%??

    Note: No mention of NCLC

    https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mied.366844/gov.uscourts.mied.366844.50.0.pdf

    Reply

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