DEFAULT DAMAGE: 77 Calls Equals $130,900.00 in Barton’s Pocket–and It Could Have Been Worse

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Repeat litigator Nathan Barton is feeling quite strong and good today.

He just nicked a TCPA defendant for nearly $131k on a default basis– in a claim involving 77 allegedly unwanted calls.

In Barton v. Real Innovation. Inc. Case No. 3:24-cv-05194 (Doc. 92) (W.D. Wash. Nov. 24, 2025) the court entered judgment in favor of Barton following a default by the defendant.

At issue were 77 unwanted calls and a host of federal and state statutes.

The Court awarded Barton $500.00–and it could have been $1,500.00!–per call under both 227(b) and 227(c) for the same calls. So Defendant ended up paying $1k a call (again it could have been $3k) as the court doubled up on penalties.

But it gets worse.

The court also awarded staggered penalties under three of Washington’s hotly litigated mini-TCPA provisions.

Under Wash. Rev. Code § 80.36.390(6)/(7) the Court awarded $14,900 (awarded as $100.00 per call until July 23, 2023 and $1,000 a call after).

Under Wash. Rev. Code § 80.36.390(9)–a new section that enhances penalties for federal DNC violations– the Court awarded $8,000.

Under Wash. Rev. Code § 80.36.400 (the Washington autodialer statute) the Court awarded $42,500 (awarded as $500.00 per call until July 23, 2023 and $1,000 a call after.)

As you can probably tell, defendant lucked out a little bit because the penalties under these provisions were increased effective July 23, 2023– violations of both sections now run $1,000.00 per call! (Prior to DNC violations were $100.00 and WDAD violations were $500.00.) Had all calls been placed today and the court maxed out damages under the TCPA the total bill here could have been as high as $462k! So be careful!

All totaled Defendant will be out nearly $131k, and Barton is grinning from ear to ear.

Learn how to avoid trolls like Barton at the best TCPA conference on the East Coast– the DNC.com TCPA summit in Clearwater happening in just a few weeks!

Also will we see YOU at the big DNC.com TCPA Summit in Florida next month? Queenie and I will both be speaking and it will be a FANTASTIC event. Plus it will be your first chance to hear me talk politics live and in person as Troutman For America holds its first ever fundraiser. Will be a ton of fun and HIGHLY educational for all.

Register now! I probably have a discount code!

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. Today must be a slow news day, because I seem to recall that you reported about this way back on July 15, 2025. In any event, the reality is that this was a default judgment resulting from the lead-generator defendant not defending. I suspect that the entity defendant is “judgment proof” and has already put a taped a new name sign over the old one on their office door and will simply continue going on doing business selling fake leads to gullible sellers who believe that they cannot be held liable for buying these bogus leads. If telemarketers and sellers would only deal with R.E.A.C.H. members, think how much happier the entire TCPAWorld would be.

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