Allied Interstate Lawsuit Claims Debt Collector Violated Telemarketing Law

An Allied Interstate lawsuit was recently filed against the collection agency for alleged violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, or TCPA.

Plaintiff Richard M. files the Allied Interstate lawsuit and class action complaint in California federal court. The TCPA lawsuit was filed on July 11, 2018 demanding jury trial.

According to the Allied Interstate lawsuit, Richard is a citizen and resident of San Diego, Calif. He says that in 2018, Allied placed a telephone call to his cellular phone, even though he never gave them his number or permission to call him.

“At no time did … [Robert] ever consent to receiving automated telephone calls from Defendant,” the lawsuit states. Neither did he provide any expressed consent allowing Allied to “place telephone calls to Plaintiff’s cellular phone by means of an ‘automatic telephone dialing system.’”

As a result of alleged negligent violations of the TCPA, Robert is requesting an entitlement to awards of “$500.00 in statutory damages for each and every call, including SMS message, placed or transmitted …”

Overview: Allied Interstate Lawsuit

In 1991, Congress passed the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) to help protect consumers against the growing number of incessant marketing calls. Through its enactment, it has since helped regulate unsolicited faxes, auto-dialed calls, telemarketing calls, prerecorded calls, and text messages.

Additionally, it provided for a National-Do-Not Call List to be created to help further protect consumers against unsolicited telephone calls. Since its establishment in 2003, it adds further protection against telemarketers and debt collectors by covering both interstate and intrastate calls.

Companies and business are now required to obtain a customer’s prior express consent before contact can be made using automated dialing equipment. No longer are prior established business relationships sufficient for the dialing of consumer calls via prerecorded or automated calls.

There are certain exceptions under the TCPA. Some of these exceptions include: calls that are made for emergency purposes; calls that are not made for a commercial purpose; calls that are made by a tax-exempt nonprofit organization; a call that is made to deliver a “health care” message; and a call that is manually dialed and does not contain a pre-recorded message.

For TCPA violations, consumers can recover up to $500 per each violation of the Do-Not-Call registry, or up to $1,500 if there was willful violation of the TCPA.

If you are someone who believes that they are victims of TCPA violations, you can take a few steps to document the violations. Some ways you may be able to do so may be to save all voice messages; keep a copy of the letter sent if you revoked your consent to receive calls; make a written record of your calls, detailing the date, time, caller’s identity, and summary of the conversation that was made between you and the caller; obtain and save all prior and continuing telephone calls.

The Allied Interstate Lawsuit is Case No. 3:18-cv-01562-GPC-BGS, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.

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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