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Comment by ipython | Hacker News Reader

I am not a lawyer so take what I say with a grain of salt.

The last suit I filed against a telemarketer was against the “beneficiary” company as the lead generator who called me was of course overseas. They claimed that they could not be held vicariously liable for the calls but ultimately settled with me because litigating that would cost a lot more money than the settlement amount.

Some state statutes go further than the tcpa and address vicarious liability specifically, so if you’re in one of those states you have a stronger legal leg to stand on.

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Based on the amount of time you spent as a pro se litigant, was the payout worth the time spent? I'm wondering if I should try this myself.

Pro se just means I did it myself - no lawyer involved. My costs therefore were limited to filing and service fees (about $100). I’d say I spent about 10 hours working on it (spare time over weekends etc). My settlement amount in that case was several thousand dollars after an in person negotiation with their lawyer (they had to fly in to my local court for an 8am Monday morning hearing time).

It was worth it to me at the time but the biggest issue is you don’t have control over when the calls come in- so you have to spend some time up front social engineering these people to get the information you need during inconvenient times of the day.

I hold an electricians license in Texas and get an absolute truckload of spam texts and calls with regard to my license renewals. What's a good way for me to get started with doing research on how to start filing litigation?

Do you have a "how-to" guide?

Unfortunately I can’t share my docs as I don’t wish to out my identity here. But if you search for tcpa demand letter you can get some ideas on how to get started.

Basically once you’ve identified the caller or the business that benefits from the call, you write a demand letter that states the details of the calls and you intend to sue under the tcpa if they do not wish to settle for $$$ before a given date.

You’ll want to read the text of the tcpa first - basically you can be awarded up to $500 per call and ask the court for triple damages so you can allege damages for up to $1500 per call. Also research any state laws you may have (that have a “private right of action” aka you can bring the suit yourself). Those damages can be layered on top.

The TCPA is a federal law, right? Do you sue them in federal court for TCPA, and then a separate lawsuit in state court to layer on top the state fines, or this is all somehow combined into one?

The TCPA allows suits to be filed in local courts, including small claims. You do not need to mess about with federal courts.

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