CALLFIRE TO PRODUCE RECORDS: Local Pizza Shop’s Effort to Quash Subpoena Seeking its Contact List Falls Flat

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There is a right way and a wrong way to oppose discovery in TCPA class actions.

Very few lawyers seem to understand the right way. Plenty, however, eagerly walk to the wrong path.

Let’s look at an example.

In Soboleski v. Party Pizza Roseville, Inc., 2025 WL 2647583 (E.D. Mich Sept. 15, 2025) the TCPA Wolf sued a local pizza shop and issued a subpoena to CallFire–its CRM platform– for records.

Now there are a number of very good ways to oppose this subpoena. One could argue the data sets sought exceed the scope of the case. Or that the data sets are private consumer information or trade secret. Or that the data sets are simply not necessary pre-certification. Plenty of other ways too.

Party Pizza apparently chose none of those courses. Instead it elected to try to quash the subpoena arguing only merits defenses–i.e. that it had consent/EBRs for the numbers in the database.

What?

That’s like arguing the records shouldn’t be produced because they’re too relevant.

You can’t take a substantive merits position related to data and then say the other side can’t look at the data on that basis. Madness.

Unsurprisingly the court rejected the bizarre effort to quash the subpoena, even hinting that there might have been viable grounds to reject the subpoena but Defendant did not file a reply brief and since Party Pizza did not “identify and request” the proper form of relief the Court allowed the subpoena to go forward.

So, in summary, even the magistrate judge reviewing the matter knew there were grounds to prevent the CallFire production but since the defendant did’t properly request relief the production will go forward.

Just terrible.

Not sue what happened here but it feels like a situation where the client didn’t want to pay for top-drawer legal work. And in TCPAWorld you DEFINITELY get what you pay for (or don’t pay for, I suppose.)

Speaking of which, Troutman Amin, LLP will be raising its rates come January 1, 2026. Retain the firm now and save (tens of?) thousands.

THE FIRST $6K AN HOUR ATTORNEY?: Troutman Amin, LLP Rates Set to Rise January 1, 2026– Get In Now!

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.

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