Dish Network Robocall Lawsuit Continues to Wrestle over Class Member Names

A Dish Network robocall lawsuit is again making headlines as Dish tries for a second time to whittle the list of Class Members.

On Feb. 26, 2018, Dish Network LLC asked a federal judge to essentially disqualify more than 3,300 Class Members out of more than 11,000 that a jury determined should share in a $61 million judgment.

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) case involves the allegedly illegal telemarketing calls made by a Dish Network authorized dealer. Dish tried to have nearly all the names excluded in January, but U.S. District Court Judge Catherine C. Eagles said Dish showed a “lack of respect” by regurgitating old arguments. Judge Eagles nixed only a few of the class members.

In May 2017, the Dish Network robocall lawsuit originally had a judgment of $20.5 million.  That amount was tripled upon a jury determining TCPA liability belonged to Dish for some of the 50,000-plus calls.

Dish Network Robocall Lawsuit Hung up on Names

Dish complained in December that misspellings, different names, and multiple addresses made the list of class members not truly identifiable. Dish insisted that only several hundred names were valid and that the company was adverse to sending judgment checks to incorrect consumers.

Disagreements over which data sets Dish had used before and after discovery added to the confusion, which is why Dish returned to court Friday with a newly suggested list of exclusions.

“DISH respectfully submits that it provided ‘contradictory evidence in existing data’ within the case record on the identities of additional individuals on plaintiff’s judgment list that meet the standards for a contradiction articulated in the court’s order,” Dish’s representative said, according to Law360. “In addition, information that claimants have submitted through the claims process creates additional contradictions with plaintiff’s judgment list.”

The Dish Network robocall lawsuit became messier when Dish accused the plaintiff of not following the court’s order to remove Class Members with only a first or a last name. The plaintiff allegedly removed 191 names that both sides had agreed needed to be deleted, but then added 165 other names without alerting the judge or Dish.

Dish accused the plaintiff of making a “stealth” move that may or may not have been agreed upon by both parties.

The Dish Network robocall lawsuit involves 51,119 calls made by Satellite Systems Network (SSN), a Dish authorized dealer, to consumers who were on the National Do Not Call Registry. These allegedly illegal telemarketing phone calls were made from 2010 to 2011.

In January 2017, a jury awarded consumers roughly $20.5 million, but Judge Eagles tripled that amount when she determined Dish intentionally looked the other way as the violations were ongoing.

Dish tried to argue that the SSN claims were already covered in a $280 million judgment issued in a case in June 2017, but the court thwarted that argument because Dish itself previously had argued the claims were not duplicates.

The Dish Network Robocall Lawsuit is Krakauer v. Dish Network LLC, Case No. 1:14-cv-00333, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina.

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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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