Supporters of Senate Bill 561 (Jackson – D, Santa Barbara) relied on a recent poll of 800 likely 2020 presidential election voters in California, commissioned by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California (the “ACLU”) and conducted by David Binder Research, to support stronger privacy laws in California. The poll was brought to light at a recent Senate committee hearing… Read More
In Mauthe v. Nat'l Imaging Assocs., No. 18-2119, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 11232 (3d Cir. Apr. 17, 2019), the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit found that a fax was not a solicitation for goods and services. Moreover, the fax did not tell Mauthe that he [*7] could purchase healthcare management services from defendant or direct him to a website… Read More
In Neal v. Am. Educ. Servs., No. 2:18-cv-01784-KJN (PS), 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 66584 (E.D. Cal. Apr. 18, 2019), Magistrate Judge Newman granted summary judgment against an FDCPA Plaintiff. Plaintiff argues that defendant is a debt collector because defendant "claim[s] to be in service of this [*13] debt." (ECF No. 1-1 at 7.) However, this is not the appropriate legal standard… Read More
We'll be co-hosting a webinar on May 9, 2019 on Cybersecurity Incident Avoidance and Response. Click on the Invite Link to register! Cybersecurity Incident Avoidance and Response Invite Read More
In Boucher v. Fin. Sys. of Green Bay, No. 17-C-132, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 61026 (E.D. Wis. Apr. 9, 2019), Judge Griesbach denied class certification in FDCPA dunning letter case because of de minimum recovery that the putative class members would receive. The settlement would have resulted in about $1 per class member. Still, the Seventh Circuit has never said… Read More
On April 9, 2019, the California State Senate Standing Committee on the Judiciary held a hearing on Senate Bill 561. As followers of this ‘blog know, SB 561, introduced by Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson, a Democrat from Santa Barbara, and requested and sponsored by the California Attorney General, would provide for a private right of action for any violation of the… Read More
It’s in quotations by design. In Shepard v. Equifax Info. Servs., LLC, No. 2:17-cv-01118-KJM-CKD, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 60814 (E.D. Cal. Apr. 9, 2019), Judge Mueller held that a consumer’s declaration that he was told his credit was and/or would be denied was sufficient to survive summary judgment. The FCRA permits a plaintiff to recover actual damages for a CRA's… Read More
In Garcia v. Equifax Info. Servs. LLC, No. 2:17-cv-03123-JAD-VCF, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 58217, at *2-5 (D. Nev. Apr. 4, 2019), Judge Dorsey granted a motion to dismiss, rejecting an FCRA plaintiff's claim that no inaccuracy was required. Under FCRA, a credit reporting agency (CRA) must "conduct a reasonable reinvestigation" upon receiving a dispute notice from a consumer concerning the… Read More
In Perez v. Rash Curtis & Assocs., No. 16-cv-03396-YGR, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 58639, at *13-15 (N.D. Cal. Apr. 4, 2019), Judge Rogers addressed how the "good faith" defense interplays with the TCPA. With respect to plaintiff Perez, defendant may not assert that it acted in good faith in calling Perez and therefore is not liable under the TCPA to… Read More
Before April 4, 2019, AB 1760 was a benign bill that fixed a few typographical errors in the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (the "CCPA"). After the bill was amended on April 4, AB 1760 turned into a wholesale replacement of the CCPA with the "Privacy for All Act of 2019". Introduced by Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland), newly-amended AB… Read More
In Gadelhak v. At&T Servs., No. 17-cv-01559, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 55200 (N.D. Ill. Mar. 29, 2019), Judge Chang dismissed a TCPA claim for absence of use of an ATDS. Because ACA International invalidated the Commission's prior orders defining the term ATDS—and also declined to articulate their own definition of the term—the Court moves on to interpreting the TCPA unburdened… Read More
In McCurley v. Royal Seas Cruises, Inc., No. 17-cv-00986-BAS-AGS, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 52173 (S.D. Cal. Mar. 27, 2019), Judge Bashant certified a TCPA-telemarketing class. In the wake of Van Patten and McKesson, it is clear that the evidence Royal offers as evidence of consent "strongly affects" the Court's predominance analysis. McKesson, 896 F.3d at 932; see also Makaron, 324… Read More
In Jiminez v. Credit One Bank, N.A., No. 17 CV 2844-LTS-JLC, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 53096 (S.D.N.Y. Mar. 28, 2019), Judge Swain found that a LiveVox system constituted an ATDS under the TCPA. The Court next turns to the question of whether the LiveVox system at issue in this case is a predictive dialer within the meaning of the FCC's… Read More
In Jaras v. Equifax Inc., No. 17-15201, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 8743 (9th Cir. Mar. 25, 2019), the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit addressed the Article III standing of bankrupt debtors complaining about how their bankruptcy was reported on their consumer report. In holding [in Spokeo, Ed.] that the plaintiff did have standing, we emphasized that the inaccuracies in… Read More
In Singer v. Las Vegas Ath. Clubs, No. 2:17-cv-01115-GMN-VCF, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 48838 (D. Nev. Mar. 25, 2019), Judge Singer found the Second Circuit’s Reyes decision incompatible with Ninth Circuit precedent. Preliminarily, the Court is bound by the Ninth Circuit's ruling in Van Patten. To the extent Reyes may serve as persuasive authority, the Court finds it cannot be… Read More
In Schaevitz v. Braman Hyundai, No. 1:17-cv-23890-KMM, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 48906 (S.D. Fla. Mar. 25, 2019), Judge Moore found that direct-to-voicemail call technology placed a “call” under the TCPA. The facts were as follows: Major Advertising, LLC, on behalf of Defendant, transmitted an unsolicited pre—recorded voicemail message (the "Message") to Plaintiff's cellular telephone, which stated as follows: Hi, this… Read More
In Kang v. Credit Bureau Connection, No. 1:18-CV-01359-AWI-SKO, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 45352 (E.D. Cal. Mar. 19, 2019), Judge Ishii denied a data reseller’s motion to dismiss under the FCRA and CCRAA. The facts alleged were as follows: Plaintiff went to a car dealership in Huntington Beach, California to buy a car. After he selected the car that he wanted… Read More
In Brown v. I.C. Sys., No. 16 C 9784, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 45384 (N.D. Ill. Mar. 20, 2019), Judge Alonso denied a debt collector’s summary judgment motion, first finding that the call pattern created a question of fact. Defendant argues that its recordings of connected calls show that plaintiff never told defendant to stop calling; on the few occasions… Read More
In Obduskey v. McCarthy & Holthus, LLP, the SCOTUS issued its opinion finding that a law firm engaged in non-judicial foreclosure was not a “debt collector” under the FDCPA. We post below from the SCOTUS’ syllabus. Law firm McCarthy & Holthus LLP was hired to carry out a nonjudicial foreclosure on a Colorado home owned by petitioner Dennis Obdus- key. McCarthy sent… Read More
The deadline for introducing new legislation in the California Legislature for the 2019 Legislative session was February 22, 2019. While new amendments to the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (the “CCPA”) could still be introduced via the “gut and amend” maneuver (which is how the CCPA itself was introduced in June 2018), we now have a general idea of… Read More
