FEEDING THE BEAST: $4.75MM TCPA Class Action Settlement Sees $1.67MM Go to Plaintiff’s Lawyers and A Bunch of Money to the NCLC

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If you’re a defense lawyer that agrees to use the NCLC as cy pres in a TCPA class action settlement you should have your bar card revoked.

Not suspended. Revoked.

I have more respect for lawyers who use GenAi in their practice than I do for TCPA defense attorneys that give a chunk of their client’s money to an organization that promotes more TCPA lawsuits. Worse than malpractice in my view. Just outright absurdity.

In Keith v. Hy Cite 2026 WL 816831 (W.D. Wisc. March 24, 2026) Mr. Number 1– Mike “hey where are this year’s power rankings?” Greenwald–crushed the Defendant in a wrong number TCPA class action for $4.75MM.

The case arose from allegedly wrong number robocalls made by Hy Cite to 18,000 people.

The settlement class is defined as:

“All persons throughout the United States (1) to whom Hy Cite Enterprises, LLC placed a call, (2) directed to a telephone number assigned to a cellular telephone service, but not assigned to a Hy Cite Enterprises, LLC customer or accountholder, (3) in connection with which Hy Cite Enterprises, LLC used an artificial or prerecorded voice, (4) from October 22, 2020, through September 10, 2025.”

With 18,000 class members the $4.75MM price tag here equates to about $263.00 a class member– way too high in my view, but that’s a relatively minor problem.

If the defendant wants to hire TCPA counsel that don’t know how to drive a good deal that’s their business and they can pay the consequences. But when they give away money to the NCLC they make it everybody’s problem.

As a reminder, the national consumer law center (NCLC) is basically the lobbying arm for the plaintiff’s bar. They beg the FCC and Congress to make it easier for people to bring predatory TCPA lawsuits and shake down small businesses. Just awful stuff in my opinion.

Yet for some reason Hy Cite’s lawyers– some guys who obviously have very little TCPA experience– decided it would be a good idea to funnel some of the settlement proceeds to the NCLC by setting them up as cy pres. What a terrible idea.

Unfortunately they’re not the first to make this mistake and the plaintiff’s bar REVELS in making these clueless defense lawyers dance to their drum.

Of course Greenwald and co. will also get a boatload of cash out of the deal– one and two-thirds million bucks.

Still assuming a 10% claims rate, class members are set to receive over $1,500.00 each here–again, Hy Cite WAY overpaid– so this was a good result for the class and Greenwald earned his fee in this one.

If you want to avoid DISASTERS like this one you may want to retain Troutman Amin, LLP– the firm has handled hundreds of TCPA class actions and never settled on a classwide basis for more than $300k (think about that!) And these are cases with MUCH LARGER classes than what Hy Cite faced here. The difference is all in REALLY understanding the TCPA and the procedural moves that make or break complex litigation. (But past success is not a guarantee of future results!)

If you’d like to know more about the unique tactics and strategies that drive Troutman Amin, LLP’s tremendous success we will be giving away our secrets live on stage at Law Conference of Champions IV!

Be there!

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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