Progressive Management Systems Medical Debt TCPA Settlement

You may qualify to claim benefits from a $1.5 million settlement fund if you received automatically-dialed calls on your cell phone from Progressive Management Systems.

Persons who received such calls according to Progressive Management Systems’ records may be entitled to receive payment. Other persons called by Progressive Management Systems can exercise rights provided by the settlement’s provisions for injunctive relief.

The settlement is the product of a robocall class action lawsuit filed in January 2016 by plaintiff Belinda Gutierrez-Rodriguez. She claims defendant R.M. Galicia Inc., which does business as Progressive Management Systems, violated federal law by placing automatically-dialed phone calls or calls using automated messages to her cell phone without first getting her prior express consent.

Progressive Management Systems is a debt collection agency that primarily serves the healthcare industry.

Gutierrez-Rodriguez claims that when Progressive Management Systems fails to reach the person it’s trying to call, it uses “unreliable skip tracing methods” to find another phone number to try. The company necessarily does not have the recipient’s permission to use these numbers, she claims.

The plaintiff argues these calls violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, a federal law that restricts the use of automatic telephone dialing systems or artificial or prerecorded voice messages to contact persons on their cell phones, unless those persons have given prior express consent to be contacted that way.

The resulting settlement will provide payments to qualifying Class Members from a $1.5 million settlement fund. It will also require Progressive Management Systems to change its telephone practices.

The settlement creates an Injunctive Settlement Class and a Damages Subclass. Members of the Injunctive Settlement Class will benefit from the injunctive relief provided in the settlement – specifically, the right to sue Progressive Management Systems individually and the requirement that the company will stop placing robocalls to cell phones.

Members of the Damages Subclass can receive payment from the settlement fund by submitting a valid and timely claim.

Class Members who want to be excluded from the settlement or want to object to its terms must submit their written request by Jan. 29, 2018.

Who’s Eligible

The Injunctive Settlement Class covers “all individuals called by PMS on their cellular telephones from January 25, 2012 through October 16, 2017.”

The Damages Settlement Subclass covers U.S. persons who meet all of the following requirements:

• They received at least one call from R.M. Galicia, dba Progressive Management Systems;
• The call was placed using LiveVox or TCN, or used a prerecorded or artificial voice message;
• The call was placed to the recipient’s cellular telephone number;
• The recipient was not listed in the patient or guarantor fields on the account to which calls were placed;
• The call was placed from Jan. 25, 2012 through Oct. 16, 2017; and
• The recipient’s telephone number is identified in the Damages Class List, which is the list of numbers called via LiveVox or TCN for patients not listed in the patient or guarantor fields for the relevant account, according to Progressive Management Systems’ records.

Potential Award

$24 – $292.41 (estimated)

Class Members who file a valid claim will receive an equal share of the $1.5 million settlement fund (after costs of litigation, incentive awards and attorneys’ fees are covered). Payment amounts will be determined in part based on the number of valid and timely claims received from qualifying Damages Subclass members.

According to estimates made by Class Counsel in the Preliminary Approval Order, payments could potentially range from $24 to $292.42, depending on how many valid claims are filed.

Members of the Injunctive Relief Class retain their right to sue Progressive Management Systems on an individual basis, and the company agrees not to raise a defense regarding the type of dialer that it used. These Class Members will also benefit from the requirement that Progressive Management Systems stop making automatically-dialed calls or calls that use artificial or prerecorded voice messages to cell phones.

Proof of Purchase

Members of the Damages Subclass must submit a Claim Form showing their current contact information and the cell phone numbers at which they received qualifying calls from Progressive Management Systems.

Claim Form

CLICK HERE TO FILE A CLAIM »

NOTE: If you do not qualify for this settlement do NOT file a claim.

Remember: you are submitting your claim under penalty of perjury. You are also harming other eligible Class Members by submitting a fraudulent claim. If you’re unsure if you qualify, please read the FAQ section of the Settlement Administrator’s website to ensure you meet all standards (Top Class Actions is not a Settlement Administrator). If you don’t qualify for this settlement, check out our database of other open class action settlements you may be eligible for.

Claim Form Deadline

1/29/2018

Case Name

Gutierrez-Rodriguez v. R.M. Galicia Inc. dba Progressive Management Systems, Case No. 3:16-cv-00182 H, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California

Final Hearing

3/23/2018   UPDATED

UPDATE: The Progressive Management Systems Medical Debt TCPA Settlement was granted final approval on March 26, 2018. Let Top Class Actions know when you receive a check in the comments section below or on our Facebook page.

Settlement Website

MedicalDebtTCPA.com

Claims Administrator

Claims Administrator
c/o Rust Consulting, Inc – 5806
P.O. Box 2614
Faribault, MN 55021-9614
1-877-872-3694

Class Counsel

Ronald A. Marron
Alexis M. Wood
Kas L. Gallucci
THE LAW OFFICES OF RONALD A. MARRON

Defense Counsel

James K. Schultz
Debbie Kirkpatrick
SESSIONS FISHMAN NATHAN & ISRAEL

Join a Free TCPA Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you were contacted on your cell phone by a company via an unsolicited text message (text spam) or prerecorded voice message (robocall), you may be eligible for compensation under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

GET A FREE CASE EVALUATION NOW