Jamison v. First Credit Services, Inc., No. 12 C 4415 (N.D. Ill.) (Mar. 28, 2013)
Judge Kendall. Denying class certification.
A Honda customer sued First Credit Services (Honda’s debt collection firm) under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act alleging that First Credit obtained his cellphone number illegally through “skip-tracing” (a fancy term for investigative research). The plaintiff sought to represent a class of Honda owners who had received similar unsolicited calls from First Credit.
Judge Kendall denied class certification. Recognizing that First Credit couldn’t be liable under the TCPA if a customer had consented to receiving phone calls, the court concluded that individualized issues of consent (or lack thereof) forestalled class certification.
Written by David Carpenter, Senior Associate, Litigation & Trial Practice, Brian Boone, Senior Associate, Litigation & Trial Practice and Dave Venderbush, Counsel, Products Liability | Alston & Bird LLP