On April 1, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its long-awaited opinion in Facebook v. Duguid, which resolved a circuit split regarding the meaning of “automatic telephone dialing system” (autodialer or ATDS) under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). In a decision authored by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the court adopted the narrow, pro-defendant definition of autodialer.
Continue Reading U.S. Supreme Court Adopts Narrow Autodialer Definition in 9-0 Defense Victory
11th Circuit Ruling Calls Text Message TCPA Class Actions Into Question
By Anthony Le, Karla L. Johnson & McGuireWoods LLP on
Posted in Standing
TCPA class actions based on the receipt of unsolicited text messages have grown more common in recent years. However, the Eleventh Circuit’s decision in Salcedo v. Hanna, may upend that trend by holding that a single unsolicited text message did not generate the harm necessary to satisfy Article III standing to sustain a Telephone Consumer…
No Written Consent, But Still No Harm: TCPA Class Certification Denied Under Spokeo
By The Editors on
Posted in Certification
Chicago-based litigators Sarah Zielinski and Jason Chrestionson bring us an update on the issue of individualized inquiry and Article III’s injury-in-fact requirement under the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins.
Earlier this year, the Northern District of Illinois declined to certify a Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) class action even though…
Court Finds Spokeo Closes Door on TCPA Claim
By The Editors on
Posted in Class Action
Telephone Consumer Protection Act litigators Sarah Zielinski, Laura Lange, and Shawna English bring us an update on the role the Supreme Court’s decision in Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins (previously covered here) played in the recent dismissal of a TCPA case in California federal district court for lack of standing. We’ll continue to…
The Peril of the Professional Plaintiff – Donaca v. Dish Network, LLC
By The Editors on
Posted in Certification
Historically, courts have grudgingly accepted the professional plaintiff in class action practice. As Judge Easterbrook of the Seventh Circuit once said, in the context of a FCRA class action, the word professional “implies experience, if not expertise.” One law student note offered one possible strategy for arguing that professional plaintiffs are inadequate class…
Typicality, Adequacy, and the Motion to Deny – Labou v. Cellco Partnership
By The Editors on
Posted in Motions Practice
In Labou v. Cellco Partnership, No. 2:13-cv-00844-MCE-EFB, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26974 (E.D. Cal. Mar. 3, 2014), the named plaintiff sued cell phone company Verizon. She alleged that Verizon had used an automatic dialer to call her cell phone in an attempt to get her former brother-in-law to pay his cell phone bill, a…
Bifurcating Discovery to Reduce Costs
By The Editors on
Posted in Discovery, Motions Practice
It’s a tale as old as the Telephone Consumer Protection Act ("TCPA"): defendant Janssen Pharmaceuticals sent out a fax reporting on the reclassification of its drug Levaquin for insurance purposes. The plaintiff sued it for violating the TCPA, claiming the fax was an advertisement; Janssen responded that the content of the fax was informational. …
Karlsgodt on Statutory Class Actions
By The Editors on
Posted in Certification
Paul Karlsgodt (of the longstanding and outstanding Class Action Blawg) has published an article with the University of Denver Law Review’s Online Edition: Statutory Penalties and Class Actions: Social Justice or Legalized Extortion? Statutory Penalties is an excellent introduction to the problem of defending class actions based on statutory violations, and Karlsgodt’s focus on…
Mootness Maneuvering – Physicians Healthsource Inc. v. Allscripts-Misy’s Healthcare Solutions, Inc.
By The Editors on
Posted in Motions Practice, Strategy
This term, the Supreme Court will review several class action cases. In one of those, Genesis HealthCare Corp. v. Symczyk (technically, an FLSA collective action, but a ruling either way will likely have wider significance) it will decide whether a defendant can moot a class action by offering full relief to a class representative. …
Mootness Doctrine Not Moot Yet – Damasco v. Clearwire Corp
By The Editors on
Posted in Motions Practice
Like many cell-phone users, Jerome Damasco received an an unsolicited text message on his phone. Unlike many cell-phone users, he decided to make a federal case of it. So he filed a class action in federal court, alleging that Clearwire (the advertiser) had violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
Faced with the complaint, Clearwire…