Navient Unit Hit with Class Action Alleging Illegal Call Recording

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On Monday, a potential class action lawsuit was filed against a Navient unit by a woman in California alleging that the company secretly records phone calls without consumer consent.

Plaintiff Jennifer Goodwin stated that Pioneer Credit Recovery Inc., a Navient subsidiary and student loan debt collector, placed phone calls to her four times between March 2015 and May 2015. During her phone call on May 14, 2015, Goodwin asked if the phone calls made to her were being recorded, as she claims that she was not previously informed of any call recording by the company.

Goodwin claims that due to the personal information shared during the conversation, she did not anticipate that the phone calls would be recorded. She also said if she had known that the calls were being recorded, she would have changed the information that she shared with the customer service representatives.

“At no time during the call did plaintiff give consent for the cellular telephone call to be monitored, recorded and/or eavesdropped upon,” the Navient class action lawsuit states. “Defendant failed to provide an automated, prerecorded warning or a periodically repeated beep tone or other sound to warn plaintiff that the calls were being recorded.”

The illegal call recording class action lawsuit did not state what Goodwin shared during her conversations with Pioneer, but only said that she would not have discussed “such private information” during her phone calls with the debt collection company had she been aware of the call recording.

In California, it is illegal to record cell phone conversations, according to Goodwin.

The plaintiff seeks to represent a Class of California consumers who had their cell phone calls secretly recorded by Pioneer since December 2014 without giving their consent. The anticipated number of Class Members would be in the tens of thousands, according to Goodwin, and she expects these individuals can be identified through Pioneer’s records.

The call recording class action lawsuit states a single count against the defendant: Invasion of Privacy: Violation of Penal Code § 632.7. This penal code is part of California’s Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) and prohibits the recording cell phone (and cordless phone) calls without the consent of all parties involved in the communication.

Goodwin is seeking $5,000 in statutory damages for each violation and is looking for injunctive relief to have Pioneer stop recording cell phone conversations with California residents without obtaining their prior consent.

Navient is also in the middle of other potential legal action, as another subsidiary is the target of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s enforcement office investigation. The CFPB is looking at Navient’s practices of disclosures and late fee assessments.

In May 2014, Navient was forced to pay $96.6 million in a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice. The claim alleged that Navient engaged in unfair loan practices including failure to lower interest rates on federally subsidized student loans. This practice affected members of the military and was seen as an alleged violation of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act.

Goodwin is represented by Abbas Kazerounian of Kazerouni Law Group APC.

The Pioneer Credit Recovery Call Recording Class Action Lawsuit is Goodwin v. Pioneer Credit Recovery Inc., Case No. 2:15-cv-09783, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.