It chewed up 3 years of my life only to have the insurance company settle for $60k in attorney fees on the day before trial. Depositions, subpeonas for records, harrassing my clients, on and on. This kind of headache can be avoided if you're interested in some proactive management.
Consumer advocate attorneys have added TCPA violation charges to FDCPA complaints. They're easy to prove and give supporting evidence to other causes of action. Attorneys General seeking to protect consumers by enforcing the laws and winning class action awards. Penalties are $500 to $1500 per occurance. That's every time you violate, each call, each consumer.
How do you prepare for to win the battle? A good place to start is by auditing your own practices.
- Are you compliant with TCPA and the newly implemented Truth in Caller ID Act?
- Where is the line between a good collection effort and harassment?
- What's your company strategy for the FOTI decision? To Miranda or not?
Here's today's idea. This is part of my agency risk management evaluation and worth some time.
Download your phone bill into Excel. The consumer's attorney is going to subpoena a year's worth of statements. Might as well try this yourself.
- Sort and count by phone number.
- Identify numbers with over 20 attempts.
- Identify the number of calls less than 16 seconds.
- Identify calls over 10 minutes.
16 seconds is 4 rings and a disconnect. How many calls would qualify as a "nuisance call" under TCPA? Less than 1% overall?
How many calls with consumers became long protracted confrontations?
Much more in depth analysis will yield good risk management results. And produce better collection calls. We're happy to provide our input.
Get ready for the AG. Will you pass the test?
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