ANOTHER ONE: United Healthcare to pay $3.5MM to Settle a TCPA Wrong Number Class Action– And Greenwald Wins Again

1 Comment

When I dropped Mr. Number One– Michael Greenwald–into second place in last year’s power rankings it seems to have lit a fire under the guy.

THE 2024 POWER RANKINGS ARE HERE!: TCPAWorld’s (Third Annual) Definitive List of the Top 10 Most Dangerous Plaintiff’s Firms Out There (And there is a NEW NUMBER ONE!)

He has gone full monster mode this year with eight figures in fee awards as far as I can tell.

In his latest takedown he just hit United Healthcare for $3.5MM out of which his firm will likely collect another $1mm or so.

The case is Johnson v. United Healthcare, 2025 WL 444348 (M.D. Fl Feb. 10, 2025) and the settlement involves wrong number calls related to an Optum HouseCalls program.

Now these calls do not seem to be spam, scam, or marketing. The HouseCalls program “is dedicated to enhancing the health and well-being of older adults by providing personalized in-home and virtual medical assessments directly to the member.”

No good deed goes unpunished in TCPAWorld.

Still, when you are using prerecorded calls you are ALWAYS at risk of wrong number calls and United apparently called 29,500 wrong numbers and now it owes $3,495,000 as a result.

The class definition is:

All persons and entities throughout the United States (1) to whom United HealthCare Services, Inc. placed a call regarding the Optum® HouseCalls program relating to a UnitedHealthcare plan, (2) directed to a cellular telephone number customarily used by a person who is not and was not a UnitedHealthcare member or plan holder, (3) in connection with which United HealthCare Services, Inc. used an artificial or prerecorded voice, (4) from October 12, 2019 through February 10, 2025

At $118.00 a class member this falls a little high in the range for wrong number class action settlements, but not crazy high.

Its another good reminder to use the reassigned numbers database to avoid wrong number calling!

Speaking of which, RND is a confirmed sponsor for this year’s Law Conference of Champions on July 13-14, 2025. SPECIAL PRICING UNTIL FEBRUARY 13, 2025 AT 9 AM. Will you be there?

Chat soon.

Discover more from TCPAWorld

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Categories:

Published by Eric "Czar" 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.

1 Comment

Leave a Reply