Unwanted Phone Calls Reap $1.3M Settlement

A plaintiff who received unwanted phone calls from a debt collection company may reap the benefits of the recent $1.3 million dollar settlement recently approved by an Illinois judge.

United States District Judge Amy St. Eve granted preliminary approval for a large settlement in a case that claims Real Time Resolutions, a debt collection company, violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and harassed borrowers by making unwanted phone calls.

The original plaintiff, Michelle Lee Tannlund, claimed that Real Time Resolutions continuously made unwanted phone calls to her for the purpose of debt collection. Allegedly, she took out a loan from Countrywide Financial in 2005.

Tannlund failed to make regular payments and when interest rates increased dramatically in 2009, she fell behind. Bank of America bought Countrywide and all of its debts, and then in 2011, Real Time Resolutions purchased Tannlund’s debt from Bank of America.

For the next year, Tannlund tried to negotiate with Real Time Resolutions for a modification on her loan to no avail. When she tried to work with them to alter the terms of her defaulted loan, she claims that is when her real problems began with the debt collection company.

She claims that many unwanted phone calls from Real Time Resolutions were automated which violates the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). She also alleges that when she was able to talk to a human during one of the Real Time unwanted phone calls, the representative was rude, abrasive and insulting.

Her original complaint states, “The customer service representatives hired and supervised by defendant were rude, abrasive and insulting in their interactions with plaintiff.”

It goes on to say that, “She continued to insist that her income had drastically fallen, yet defendant’s representatives mocked her claim of financial hardship, telling her to give up her cellphone as it was ‘too expensive’ and ‘get a smaller trash can’ because she was, in their view, paying too much for garbage collection.”

Telephone Consumer Protection Act

Some unwanted phone calls by companies violate the TCPA. Unwanted phone calls or text messages may violate TCPA when a call is made to those on the Do-Not-Call-Registry or when a recipient receives an unwanted call from a robo-dialer.

The TCPA restricts what telemarketers and debt collection companies like Real Time Resolutions can do with their use of pre-recorded voice messages and automated dialing.

This Unwanted Phone Calls Lawsuit is Case No. 1:14-cv-05149 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

UPDATE: The Real Time Resolutions TCPA Class Action Settlement is now open. Click here to file a claim. 

UPDATE 2: On Oct. 21, 2017, Top Class Actions viewers who filed a claim for the Real Time Resolutions TCPA class action settlement started receiving checks worth as much as $45.78. Congratulations to everyone who got PAID! 

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.

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