TCPA Counseling & Litigation

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) was first introduced in 1991 as a “bill to amend the Communications Act of 1934 to prohibit certain practices involving the use of telephone equipment for advertising and solicitation purposes.” In other words, it was enacted as the anti-telemarketing statute. Given its strict liability nature and specifically prescribed statutory damages, however, the TCPA has attracted great interest from the plaintiffs’ bar for several years, with no signs of waning. The number of TCPA cases filed each year skyrocketed from 14 in 2007 to 4,392 in 2017 due to a number of factors, including ever-changing technology in the space.

As the plaintiffs’ bar has gotten more aggressive bringing TCPA lawsuits, no industry or business practice has proven immune to TCPA class actions. The TCPA has grown from the anti-telemarketing statute into a cottage industry for huge attorneys’ fees awards to plaintiffs’ counsel. 

Alston & Bird’s TCPA team has significant experience defending clients in TCPA class and individual actions and counseling clients to help ensure that these types of lawsuits will not succeed. The team has taken on most, if not all, of the big players in the TCPA plaintiffs’ bar, regularly employing innovative legal strategies to either secure dismissal or force cases into individual arbitration.

Litigation Experience

• Representing a national quick-service restaurant in two nationwide TCPA class actions (W.D. Wash. and N.D. Ill.) relating to text messages sent by a third party.
• Representing Bankers Life Insurance Company in a nationwide TCPA class action in the Northern District of Illinois stemming from alleged telephone solicitation calls placed to a consumer whose number was placed on the National Do Not Call Registry.
• Representing Wilmington Trust in a TCPA class action in the Northern District of Illinois stemming from calls that Ocwen placed to the plaintiffs and other borrowers.
• Representing PHEAA, a student loan provider, in an individual case in the Northern District of Georgia concerning debt collection calls allegedly placed in violation of the TCPA.
• Representing Dell Technologies, Dell Inc., and Dell EMC in a pending TCPA action in the Eastern District of North Carolina regarding unsolicited text messages.
• Represented Colonial Penn Life Insurance in a nationwide TCPA class action in the District of New Jersey stemming from alleged telephone solicitation calls placed to a consumer whose number was placed on the National Do Not Call Registry.
• Represented a leading rent-to-own retailer in a TCPA class action in the District of Arizona involving calls placed to references on their cell phones. Obtained dismissal of the case without any discovery or payment after demonstrating that the calls were not placed from an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS).
• Represented a leading rent-to-own retailer in an individual TCPA case in the Western District of Tennessee relating to calls to the plaintiff’s cell phone allegedly placed with an ATDS. Obtained dismissal without discovery after demonstrating that the calls were not placed from an ATDS.
• Represented a leading cell phone service provider in two nationwide TCPA class actions (S.D. Cal. and N.D. Ill.) related to collections calls to cell phones. Both cases settled on favorable terms with minimal discovery.
• Represented CVS in an individual TCPA case that settled on favorable terms before discovery.
• Represented Grand Canyon Education in a putative class action in the Western District of Pennsylvania. The plaintiff dismissed the lawsuit after we provided evidence refuting the allegations in the complaint before filing any responsive pleadings or entering our appearances.
• Represented a political survey group in a nationwide class action in the Eastern District of Virginia concerning calls allegedly placed using an ATDS and settled on an individual basis before discovery.