‘I AM GOING TO ASK YOU NOT TO CALL MY HOUSE AGAIN”: Documents in TCPA Class Action Against Molina Healthcare Sealed– But It Doesn’t Seem Like that Will Help

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So Molina Healthcare is facing a pretty serious TCPA class action up in Washington state.

At issue are claims a lady was tricked or duped or confused into switching to Molina from Aetna and then Molina kept calling her even after she said “I am going to ask you not to call my house again”–which is pretty clear in my view.

Plus Molina was using prerecorded calls which are automatically actionable when sent for marketing purposes without consent to either a cell phone or landline–not good for Molina.

Perhaps even worse news for Molina, they have #biglaw defending them against Avi Kaufman–one of the best class action attorneys in the nation. So I have a feeling I know where this is headed. 

I mean, you can’t say BIG LOSS without big law…

But who knows, maybe they’ll pull off a big win. We’ll see.

The Plaintiff’s class certification effort is now fully briefed and the Court just issued an order sealing some of the material designated confidential by the parties. This means nosy operators of TCPA blogs can’t comb through all the records.

Too bad.

Sealing order is Ramey v. Molina, 2025 WL 1100632 (W.D. Wash March 20, 2025).

But what we do know is Molina (or someone acting on its behalf) allegedly called the Plaintiff and duped her into switching healthcare plans away from Aetna. When Plaintiff figured that out she switched back to Aetna but Molina kept calling.  No way to know for sure if those facts are true.

Then again, according to Plaintiff’s expert Molina made hundreds of prerecorded calls to numbers within a sample set that were on the company’s internal DNC list. Plaintiff extrapolates there will be over 22,000 individuals in the full set who received approximately 200,000 prerecorded calls AFTER being asked to stop calling. Eesh.

No idea if any of this is true, of course, and a lot of the record is sealed but it seems Molina could be facing $1BB or so in exposure here. Eesh.

We’ll see what happens next.

But its just another example of how dangerous TCPAWorld can be folks. If you are using prerecorded calls to contact consumers you need to make absolutely sure your internal DNC practices are in great condition and be sure to retain TOP NOTCH TCPA counsel to defend any resulting class litigation.

I know everyone is focused on LCOC III right now but for those of you on the east coast, Queenie and I will be venturing to Washington DC in less than two weeks to speak at the critical DNC.com TCPA DC Summit. Two days basking in a wonderland of TCPA delights with your favorite lawyers.

Chat soon!

 

 

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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

  1. I can see a defense here. The consumer never made a do not call demand. By the allegations of the Complaint, the consumer stated “I am going to ask you not to call my house again”, but did not state to not call. She merely expressed that she was going to do so sometime in the future. Voila… A defense for #BigLaw!

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