Class Action Robocall Lawsuits in California Target Verizon

Los Angeles, CAThere can be little doubt that nuisance call lawsuit plaintiff Denise Menichiello has done everything right. She has never knowingly given any entity her permission to reach out to her cellphone with unsolicited calls. In fact, her number has been on the ‘do-not-call’ list since the summer of 2003. One can imagine, therefore, Menichiello’s surprise and dismay when she started receiving auto-dialed calls from Verizon Wireless Services LLC (Verizon) to her mobile phone without her permission.

The illegal robocalls landed Menichiello in her attorney’s office to discuss an illegal telemarketing lawsuit (Menichiello v. Verizon Wireless Services LLC et al., Case No. 8:16-cv-01635, in the US District Court for the Central District of California). Her do not call suit alleges breaches of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).

Service providers and telemarketers have stepped up their activity in recent years – especially with the introduction of mobile communication devices that provide the technical capacity to reach out to a ‘prospect’ at any time regardless of where they are, as opposed to restricting all robocalls and telemarketing calls to the supper hour, when it is assumed prospects are home.

However, consumers are understandably protective of their mobile phones given the cost of data plans which may eat up their minutes on incoming calls, or the inconvenience and danger of having a cellphone ring in the midst of what could be a potentially unsafe situation.

To that end, the TCPA has been explicit on rules involving telemarketing and cell phones, requiring telemarketer to obtain “prior express consent” from the owner of the mobile device to receive autodialed or pre-recorded messages, “absent of an emergency.” Such rules are in place regardless of whether an individual signs up for the do-not-call registry.

And yet, Verizon “continued to call plaintiff in an attempt to solicit its services and in violation of the national do-not-call provisions of the TCPA,” Menichiello says, in her do not call list lawsuit. “Upon information and belief, and based on plaintiff’s experiences of being called by defendant despite plaintiff’s cellular telephone number being on the National Do Not Call Registry, and at all relevant times, defendant failed to establish and implement reasonable practices and procedures to effectively prevent telephone solicitations in violation of the regulations.”

The illegal telemarketing calls lawsuit, filed earlier this month in California, is proposed as a class action that would represent two classes of consumers:

The first covers any US resident who may have received a robocall from Verizon in the last four years without having given prior consent. The second class of consumers would represent any member of a do-not-call list having been registered as a list participant for at least a month, have neither given Verizon permission to call or have no “prior established business relationship” with Verizon, and who may have received more than one auto-dialed telemarketing call over a 12-month period from Verizon within the last four years.

Menichiello alleges in her illegal telemarketing calls class action that she received “numerous” calls on her cell phone.

Each individual violation could result in $1,500 in total compensation. Meanwhile, other Robocall lawsuits keep coming.