Student Debt Company Hit with TCPA Class Action Lawsuit

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Student Debt Company Hit with TCPA Class Action Lawsuit

By John Curran

A New Jersey woman alleges in a new class action lawsuit that she received numerous phone calls from a student debt administrator – even though she did not provide her telephone number to the company — in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).

Beginning in 2009, plaintiff Shyriaa Henderson says that United State Aid Funds Inc. (USA Funds) willfully violated the TCPA with robocalls to her cell phone that continued through June 2013. Similar to text message spam lawsuits, Henderson alleges that she did not provide the company with consent to contact her on her cell phone.

According to her class action lawsuit, Henderson believes the company may have obtained her number either through a third party or by using Caller ID when she called the company for regular business purposes. However, depending on the judge, Henderson may be required to provide further information demonstrating the likelihood that an automated dialing system was used by USA Funds.

The woman is seeking treble damages pursuant to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, alleging that the student debt administrator willfully violated the law which could lead to up to $1,500 in fines per illegal call under the statute. She is seeking class certification on behalf of any other people who received robocalls from the company over the same roughly four-year time frame.

Key questions in the TCPA class action lawsuit include whether or not the company used an automated dialing system, a critical component in a successful complaint, as well as the means that the company used to obtain phone numbers that were allegedly not provided by consumers like Shyriaa Henderson.

The TCPA class action lawsuit is Shyriaa Henderson, et al. v. United Student Aid Funds Inc., Case No. 13-cv-1845, U.S. District Court, Southern District of California.

If you have received unwanted telephone communications from a company without your consent, you may be able to join a class action lawsuit or begin your own case. The first step is to determine whether or not you are legally eligible, and you can do so by filling out the short form at the Text Message Spam, Cell Phone Call TCPA Class Action Lawsuit Settlement Investigation for a free case review.

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