![\"\"](\"http:\/\/activeprospect.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/craig_blogbanner.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
As you work on your marketing campaigns and prepare to reach out to potential customers, you should make sure you understand the rules and regulations regarding contacting prospects\u2013and the costly consequences of not complying with them. Understanding Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) violations and knowing how to avoid them can help to protect you from serial litigators.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Whether you\u2019re a professional in the marketing space or the legal field, you should know the importance of avoiding TCPA violations, such as not having a consumer\u2019s <\/span>prior express written consent <\/span><\/a>to be contacted. This means you have a documented record that the consumer agreed to be contacted, they agreed to your TCPA legal disclosure language, and they provided their phone number.<\/span><\/p>\n The burden of proof is on you, the caller\/business. You could face fines up to $1,500 per call or text message\u2013not to mention the time and money you could spend dealing with a court case\u2013if you are unable to provide sufficient proof that someone agreed to hear from you.<\/span><\/p>\n If you are researching TCPA requirements for telemarketing calls, the name \u201cCraig Cunningham\u201d likely rings a bell \u2013 or perhaps, more fittingly, an alarm.<\/span><\/p>\n Over the past decade, Craig has made a name for himself by filing <\/span>over 150<\/span><\/a> Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) lawsuits \u2013 a staggering amount for an individual representing himself in the majority of his cases. He has created a new type of career as a \u201cprofessional plaintiff,\u201d targeting marketers using automation to call or text prospective customers without their consent \u2013 whether the outreach was made in good faith or not \u2013 and has since become infamous for putting TCPA violations into the spotlight.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n While the TCPA originally went into effect all the way back in 1991, the clarity of its regulations began to blur as technology advanced rapidly over the next two decades. As the years went by, TCPA litigation fines continued rising at rapid rates thanks to loopholes and overall confusion, which led the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to release a <\/span>Declaratory Ruling and Order<\/span><\/a> in July 2015 in an effort to clarify the issues surrounding the regulations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In 2021, the <\/span>United State Supreme Court<\/span><\/a> defined an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS) as a device that must \u201cstore a telephone number using a random or sequential generator or to produce a telephone number using a random or sequential number generator\u201d (National Law Review). Although this ruling can be considered victorious for companies facing TCPA litigation, it should also serve as a reminder for organizations to review and update their telemarketing and\/or automatic dialing practices.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Because technology and outreach efforts keep evolving so quickly, it\u2019s becoming more difficult for marketers to discern if their outreach is compliant or not, which in turn is making it easier than ever for people like Craig to hit companies of all sizes and industries with TCPA lawsuits.<\/span><\/p>\n Craig Cunningham\u2019s illustrious journey into the world of TCPA lawsuits began back <\/span>in 2014<\/span><\/a>, preying initially on debt collection companies and later widening his targets to companies like home security providers and resellers and adding promotional outreach violations to his arsenal. As he began to find more success with his lawsuits \u2013 most companies would rather settle the $500 or $1,500 fine per call than spend hundreds of thousands dollars in court \u2013 Craig began to spread awareness about his successes on financial forums and outlets so others could follow suit. He even claimed that he was writing a book titled <\/span>Tales of a Debt Collection Terrorist: How I Beat the Credit Industry At Its Own Game<\/span><\/i>, although nothing under that title has been published yet.<\/span><\/p>\n Craig\u2019s most recent victim was Radius Global Solutions, LLC, whom he sued in September 2020 for <\/span>placing a missed call<\/span><\/a> to his phone, which Craig argued was an illegal robocall. He claimed that he had wasted his time and money trying to determine who called him by dialing the number from which he received the missed call. As a result, the Court denied Radius\u2019 motion to dismiss, which will in turn allow Cunningham to continue his efforts to prosecute the TCPA claim. This decision from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas may set a tough precedent for TCPA lawsuits regarding missed calls in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n Now, Craig\u2019s success has even inspired others to follow his lead in an attempt to catch marketers in the act of non-compliant campaigns and get an easy payout. A man named <\/span>Andrew Perrong<\/span><\/a> has filed dozens of lawsuits since 2015, winning against a variety of companies, from debt collection agencies to huge corporations like Verizon and Citibank. A woman named Melody Stoops <\/span>has testified in court<\/span><\/a> that she has collected 35 cell phones to support her \u201cbusiness\u201d of being a professional TCPA plaintiff, simply waiting for the wrong company to call. These cases usually settle out of court for amounts ranging from <\/span>$10,000<\/span><\/a> to $250,000.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>To ensure complaints don\u2019t escalate into lawsuits, you need high-quality proof of consent that you can share as quickly as possible. <\/span>If you\u2019re a marketer who relies on buying leads to fill your funnel, you\u2019re familiar with the challenges of verifying and documenting consent for TCPA consent compliance. If you\u2019re not careful, your company could go out of business due to fines and lawsuits. The last thing you want is to buy a lead who turns out to be someone who sues your company, and this happens often to both large and small businesses.<\/span><\/p>\n Many litigators assume you\u2019re not going to have documented consent and think it will be easy to sue you and get a settlement. If you want to <\/span>outsmart the TCPA litigators<\/span><\/a>, you need to properly collect consent, document that consent, and be able to quickly access the documentation.<\/span><\/p>\n Remember: you may be taking the necessary steps to obtain consent before contacting a consumer, but unless you can prove the consent was given, you are still vulnerable to fines and lawsuits.<\/span><\/p>\n Spending time fighting lawsuits is a drain on your resources and time. As more \u201cCraigs\u201d sprout up around the country, the higher your chances are of calling someone who will jump at the chance to take your company to court. That\u2019s why it\u2019s more important than ever to stay up to date on <\/span>TCPA consent requirements<\/span><\/a> and take steps to protect yourself as soon as possible.<\/span><\/p>\n With TrustedForm, our <\/span>TCPA compliance software<\/span><\/a>, you receive unbiased third-party documentation of consent and real-time actionable insights about the leads you\u2019re acquiring. This proof of consent can protect you in the event of TCPA violations while giving you new confidence that your leads have actually asked you to contact them. You can also look into litigator scrubbing software that protects your business with a <\/span>litigation firewall <\/span><\/a>or a <\/span>cloud-based service<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nWhat Are TCPA Violations?<\/span><\/h2>\n
The First Rule of TCPA Telemarketing: Don\u2019t Call Craig Cunningham\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n
The Beginning of a Career in TCPA Violations<\/span><\/h3>\n
Copycat TCPA Lawsuit Chasers\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n
Why Is TCPA Consent Compliance Important?<\/span><\/h2>\n
Help Protect Your Business with TrustedForm, a TCPA Compliance Software<\/span><\/h2>\n