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Hauling out of jurisdiction telemarketers into your local court – A Federal Judge has thoughts
Recently my law clerk Nathen Barton made the news for obtaining a $130,900 default judgement against Richardson Marketing Group LLC, an Ohio company, in a Washington State federal court. The opinion in Barton v. Real Innovation, 2025 WL 1993193 (W.D. Wash. July 17, 2025) highlights my thoughts on obtaining jurisdiction over out of state defendants….
Hospitals in Washington State can’t collect until they consider your financial status
Did you know that hospitals in Washington State must consider your financial status before collecting? There are a couple different laws regulating this. One is Washington State Administrative Code WAC 246-453-020 Initiation of collection efforts “shall be precluded pending an initial determination of sponsorship status”—i.e., until a person is screened for charity care eligibility. There…
how to defend yourself from credit card lawsuit in washington state pro se step-1
Are you being sued for credit card debt and you don’t have the financial resources to hire a lawyer to defend you? Here are our general recommendations to take the first step to defend yourself pro se. And that’s it for Step 1. The grim reality is 95% of people sued for credit card debt…
Personal jurisdiction in TCPA lawsuits – looking at Born v. Celtic Mktg. LLC
Many telemarketing cases involve pulling defendants from out of your jurisdiction into your local court. In the ninth circuit, one of the influential cases on TCPA jurisdiction is Born v. Celtic Mktg. LLC, No. 8:19-cv-01950-JLS-ADS, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 89220 (C.D. Cal. May 20, 2020) and this is in the same line of cases as…
How to serve telemarketing lawsuits in Washington State
If you are going to sue a telemarketer under the telephone consumer protection act, it is very likely you will have to serve the telemarketer the summons and complaint. That can be easier said that done, just from finding the right defendant to serving the right defendant. Take the case of pro-se TCPA Adean Hill…
Alleviate tax sued again for unwanted telephone calls!
George Baseluos, the CEO of Alleviate Tax, recently went on a podcast crowing about what a great business he’s running, but for running a great business, his company sure does get sued a lot. The latest lawsuit is Nickson v. Alleviate Tax LLC 8:25-cv-01042-TDC in the district court for the district of Maryland. The factual…
Compel TCPA defendants who don’t want to answer discovery requests
TCPA lawsuits often require propounding carefully written discovery requests that can’t be dodged with a useless answer or an objection that will stick, and then the second problem is compelling answers to the inevitable initial objections and non-answers. I have an earlier post on compelling discovery answers as well. We can learn a lot from…
Getting a default judgment against telemarketers
When suing a telemarketer, don’t be shocked if they refuse to appear in court and defend the lawsuit after you serve them. TCPA plaintiffs sometimes aren’t sure what to do in these situations and I thought posting a few examples and variations of default judgments might be useful to the community. The federal rule of…
4 Telemarketers indicted for selling BS health insurance
The United States Attorney recently unsealed an indictment against four telemarketers who were busted for using the telephone to sell essentially fake or worthless health “insurance” policies. The situation is a look behind the curtain of how many telemarketers operate day in and day out. According to the Justice Department’s press release, Alan Redmond, Arthur…
What is a FOUNDATIONAL 30(b)(6) deposition and why do you want one?
Previously I wrote about what is a 30(b)(6) deposition and why do you want one, and I noted in another article about a TCPA plaintiff getting the run around that a foundational 30(b)(6) deposition might be useful. But what is a foundational 30(b)(6) deposition? A foundational 30(b)(6) deposition is typically done at the outset of…
How to NOT conduct yourself in court
We are doing some legal research and just had to share a poignant example of how not to conduct yourself in court. The lawsuit is a telephone consumer protection act case Ewing v. Freedom Forever, (S.D. Cal). Mr. Ewing is a long time pro-se TCPA plaintiff with reputation of being difficult to work with, and…
Settlement strategies in TCPA lawsuits – Plaintiff’s perspective
Our good friend Mr. Troutman recently posted a blog article with his commentary on a TCPA settlement exemplified in Katz v. Allied First Bank, 2025 WL 1489176 (N.D. Ill May 24, 20245). In this lawsuit, Mr. Katz sued Allied First Bank, the seller, and Consumer Nsight, the telemarketer/lead seller. Consumer Nsight settled with Mr. Katz…