Trial lawyers group is sued for alleged junk-fax violation; US Chamber calls attention to suit
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The American Association for Justice is facing a class-action lawsuit claiming it violated federal law when it sent faxes marketing health insurance without a notice that allows recipients to opt out.
The Federal Communications Commission ruled in October that opt outs must be included on all fax advertisements, including solicited faxes, the Blog of Legal Times reports in a story published by the National Law Journal. The FCC is allowing organizations to seek retroactive waivers; however the AAJ filed a petition in November that seeks such a waiver.
The AAJ has asked a federal judge in Florida to either toss or stay the suit (PDF) until the FCC rules. The AAJ says in its motion (PDF) that the name plaintiff, a Miami lawyer, had given express permission for faxed ads and it believes the FCC will grant the waiver.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce wants to change the telemarketing law. In a filing with the FCC, the Chamber argues that regulations under the law have produced “a tsunami” of class actions “driven not by aggrieved consumers, but by opportunistic plaintiffs’ firms taking advantage of uncertainty in the law to rake in attorney fees.”
Bryan Quigley, a spokesman for the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, is pointing to the lawsuit against the AAJ to highlight what the group believes to be problems with the law. “The plaintiffs’ lawyer lobby has finally found a lawsuit they believe is frivolous,” he told the Blog of Legal Times in an email. “Perhaps now they can sympathize with what many companies face every day by being sued despite having done everything possible to comply with the law.”
AAJ spokeswoman Michelle Kimmel told the Blog of Legal Times the group believes it complied with the law, but in any event it does not support changes that would make it harder for consumers to sue for violations. “We fully support consumers’ rights to hold businesses accountable for unsolicited spam,” she said.
