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If you have ever listed a house for sale by owner, or had a house listing lapse, or just get confused for someone who is thinking about selling your house, this story is going to resonate with you. In 2024 Ms. Soale attempted to sell her house but apparently failed. What she did succeed at…

A heads up for our Washington State readers, it has always been illegal to obscure your license plate but a Washington State troopers are being instructed to push enforcement of a recent revision in the law. The law was amended last year which specifically included license plate covers. It appears that any cover, even if…

I have repeatedly advocated telephone consumer protection act plaintiffs to always check the work of opposing attorneys, and this non-TCPA case illustrates why. The background is a little busy. Man A assaults Man B. A court orders Man A to not come within 1000 feet of Man B (criminal no-contact order) but Man B got…

In the summer of 2023 Washington State became one of the best states for protecting their citizens from telemarketers. These are the most common laws telemarketers flout and the statutory damages you could be awarded. Federal Law Before we get to state laws, let’s start with federal laws that protect citizens in every state from…

47 U.S. Code § 227(a)(4) defines “telephone solicitation” as the initiation of a telephone call or message for the purpose of encouraging the purchase or rental of, or investment in, property, goods, or services. Nothing in telephone solicitation requires the call to be answered, just dialed. How do so many trial courts get it wrong?…

Telemarketers often have bad timing. How many times have they called you while you were in the middle of something else? Sometimes their arguments in court have bad timing too. Nathen Barton sued a couple insurance companies for unwanted calls, and defendant American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus (the quacking duck Aflac) filed a…

In a ruling that should not have surprised anyone, the sixth circuit court of appeals just released an opinion finding that those who telephone solicit for others, are telemarketers, just like 47 CFR § 64.1200(f)(12) says: The term telemarketer means the person or entity that initiates a telephone call or message for the purpose of…

In a ruling that should surprise no one but is refreshing to see, a New York federal court ruled on September 19, 2024 that silence is not consent to receive calls under the TCPA. In Watson v. Manhattan Luxury,  2024 WL 4238307 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 19, 2024), the plaintiffs had an established business relationship with their…

Serving a lawsuit on a telemarketer can be harder than building the case itself as a recent TCPA plaintiff is experiencing. The case is Reo v. Manasseh Jordan Ministries, Inc., No. 1:25-cv-00290, 2026 LX 101943 (N.D. Ohio Mar. 26, 2026). As usual all “facts” cited in this article are from the filings and allegations are…

Tons of people in Washington State and Oregon are being harassed by real estate investors begging to buy your property. Below market value of course! And many of them won’t stop calling even when asked. They often believe they are beyond the reach of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act because in their mind they aren’t…

For whatever reason, different types of lawsuits tend to get different types of attorneys. For example, many debt collection attorneys are, ahem, not what you’d call legal scholars. Part of the reason is good attorneys don’t want to work for debt collectors but that isn’t really the entire reason. Debt collection companies don’t need particularly…