TWO DAY TRIAL– $1,000.00 VERDICT: How Silent Calls and Secret Recordings Lead to a Tiny Recovery in Nevada TCPA Trial

We hear a lot about the huge risk posed by TCPA class litigation but the inverse can also be true– when a TCPA case is tried on an individual basis damages can sometimes be vanishingly small.

Take the case of Edwards v. Tamez, 2026 WL 2071059 (D. Nv. July 16, 2026).

There after litigating a TCPA suit for over five years the parties proceeded through a two day bench trial. The result? $1,000.00 awarded to the Plaintiff.

The case arose out of four marketing calls made by Tamez to Edwards back in 2019. At the time Tamez was working as an agent affiliated with Century 21.

Tamez made 4 calls to Edwards– two of which were completely silent. Edwards apparently recorded at least one of the calls without Tamez knowing.

Edeards sued for TCPA violations contending his number was on the DNC list and the cold call solicitations violated the statute. Tamez counter-sued for the illegal recording.

The case meandered through years of litigation before finally resulting in a trial before the court.

At trial the Court determined Edwards could recover for all four calls– even the two silent calls– because the TCPA permitted recovery for “initiated” solicitations, even if they were not completed. Although the Court could have awarded up to $6k for the four calls ($1,500 each) the court exercised its discretion to award just $250.00 per call– for a grand total of $1,000.00 awarded to Edwards.

Notably Edwards had also sued Century 21 but the court determined Tamez was acting independently as he could make his own hours and choose who to call and who not to call (probably the right result but interesting analysis here.)

As to Tamez’ illegal call recording claim under NRS 598.0918, the court found the recording was, indeed, illegal but exercised its discretion to award ZERO dollars to Tamez. That’s right. Zero.

You get the sense both of these knuckleheads drove the court nuts at the trial because these discretionary awards really show a lack of enthusiasm for either party.

So that’s it.

Five years of litigation.

$1,000.00 awarded.

In a weird way though this case demonstrates why the class action vehicle is so often used for TCPA litigation– only a very odd person would chase a case for 5 years to win $1,000.00. The class action vehicle makes these cases far more valuable– for better or worse.

Chat soon.