On September 10, 2019, California federal judge, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, entered a $267 million judgment against a debt collection agency, Rash Curtis & Associates (Rash Curtis), for its violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) for over 534,000 unsolicited robocalls. This judgment comes after a May jury trial in which the jury found for the plaintiff, Ignacio Perez and the class of consumers, based on the fact that Rash Curtis made over 501,000 calls to class members using its Global Connect dialer, 2,600 calls using a VIC dialer and more than 31,000 calls using a TCN dialer. Rash Curtis made 14 unwanted calls to Perez using the Global Connect dialer and an artificial or prerecorded voice. All of these actions are prohibited by the TCPA without prior express written consumer consent.

Each class member will receive $500 per call, totaling $267 million. Perez will receive a separate award of $7,000 for the calls he received in violation of the TCPA. This judgment covers all individuals who received these unsolicited calls between June 17, 2012, and April 2, 2019, but excludes anyone who provided their cell phone numbers in credit applications to a creditor that had opened an account with Rash Curtis in that debtor’s name prior to Rash Curtis placing its first call to that individual.

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