My column on Sunday obviously hit a nerve, given the volume of calls I’ve gotten from people besieged in their own homes. Tom Maggi called me from his home in Minneapolis to alert me about one little-known remedy. A 1991 federal law called the Telephone Consumer Protection Act gives consumers the right to sue telemarketing scofflaws in small claims court (we call it conciliation court here in Minnesota). It’s hard to know how often that happens. But a California man fed up with mortgage offers and other solicitations got some notoriety two years ago after he sued four companies and won $6,100. He also set up a web site, amusingly titled killthecalls.com, for those who want to follow in his litigious footsteps. His site links to the law, whose relevant portion reads as follows:

A person who has received more than one telephone call within any 12-month period by or on behalf of the same entity in violation of the regulations prescribed under this subsection may, if otherwise permitted by the laws or rules of court of a State bring in an appropriate court of that State–
(A) an action based on a violation of the regulations prescribed under this subsection to enjoin such violation,
(B) an action to recover for actual monetary loss from such a violation, or to receive up to $500 in damages for each such
violation, whichever is greater, or
(C) both such actions.

How many lawyers would Voice Touch Inc. and Network Foundations LLC, the two companies the feds say made at least a billion calls, need to handle all the lawsuits that could be filed against them?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 19th, 2009 at 1:46 pm and is filed under Businesses in hot water, Civil liberties, How to blow the whistle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.