I am always fascinated when lead generators and telemarketers eat each other in court, so I recently checked in to see how the whole Final Expense Direct vs Python Leads case was shaping up. As usual I start with the background. All the "facts" in this article are taken from the court filings, I have no personal knowledge of the truth of any of this. Please remember that all "facts" in the pleadings are taken as true prior to findings of the court. I will post a number of the

Telemarketer's response to motion denied

The litigants driving my watch how you litigate stories and watch what you say stories probably wouldn't realize the articles are addressing their choices, but they are still drive-slowly-by-while rubbernecking worthy. As these stories go, Mr. Matthew Weiss's choices, and his escape from any really meaningful consequences, bear a closer look. As always, lets start with the background, and for that I'll pull from the original motion and the magistrate judge's report and recomm

This is part of my long running series on how telemarketing really works. Serially successful Telephone Consumer Protection Act plaintiffs typically pick up a 'fan club' of angry telemarketers who, since they can't win in court, try to win outside of court. This case offers some lessons in the best practices of investigating unwanted calls and callers. Mark Dobronski is a successful TCPA plaintiff, and as he started getting the better of Savings Bank Mutual Life Insurance Com

Legal dramas and legal reality television is so prevalent that it shapes our collective opinion of the court system. These shows usually portray judges as serious figures who have spent a lifetime of scholarly study, take their jobs very seriously, and they aside their personal biases to just focus on the law and be treat the parties in a dispute even handedly. This is also how the court system portrays itself. It is designed to get citizens to support the judiciary, and when

Previously I wrote about what is a 30(b)(6) deposition and why do you want one, and I noted in another article about a TCPA plaintiff getting the run around that a foundational 30(b)(6) deposition might be useful. But what is a foundational 30(b)(6) deposition? A foundational 30(b)(6) deposition is typically done at the outset of a lawsuit and it isn't intended to get into the merits of the lawsuit, but to understand organization structure, how and where documents are retaine

We were doing some legal research today and ran into an interesting situation a TCPA plaintiff has fallen into, and we wanted to share our thoughts on how a similarly situated telephone consumer protection act plaintiff could get past it.

After a lawsuit is filed with the court, typically defendants can respond with an answer, or a motion to dismiss. Many defendants' knee jerk reaction will always be a motion to dismiss. It delays the case, which defendants typically like, maybe there is a pleading defect in the complaint, and if nothing else, many of them seem to believe and many defendants daydream that the TCPA plaintiff is a terrible person, the defendant did nothing wrong, and maybe a motion to dismiss th

There is a long running $100 shopping rewards voucher / gift card / retail rebate scam out there. The people behind it claim they will send you some sort of card or voucher or certificate worth $100 and all they ask from you is $3.49 or similar small amount just for "shipping and handling". Lots of folks have experienced different parts of the elephant. https://archive.jsonline.com/newswatch/231052511.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXzVR376BTc https://www.consumerreport

First, this post is not knocking anyone. Most telemarketing recipients are not experts and telemarketing laws are generally intended to be enforced by ordinary citizens. Hopefully we all learn from the mistakes of others. It is no surprise telemarketers hate TCPA plaintiffs. If you read telemarketing propaganda, they believe they have a god given right to ring your phone and your lawsuit is getting in the way of the natural order of things. What might be a surprise to some

If you are wondering where all these illegal telemarketing calls are coming from physically, most of the dialers sit in India, Pakistan, and the Philippines. It is common for one call center to dial the phones. Answered calls to be transferred to a different call center for screening, and a second round of screening to be done at yet a different call center before the call is transferred to an American business. If you are wondering how they got your phone number at all when

Have you given the gift of consent to a telemarketer without realizing it? The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has said the purpose of the TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act) "aims to curb a particular kind of call: a call that a person does not expect to receive". However your personal definition of unexpected calls may conflict with the law. Here are common situations where you may have opened yourself up to telemarketing calls without realizing it, and things you can