Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.
EarthLink Call Recording Class Action Lawsuit Survives Motion to Dismiss
By Matt O’Donnell
A class action lawsuit alleging EarthLink Inc. invaded consumers’ privacy by secretly recording telephone conversations between its employees and the public has survived a motion by the Internet services provider to dismiss the case.
Lead plaintiff Monica Garcia alleges in the EarthLink class action lawsuit that the company secretly recorded a phone call made by an EarthLink employee to Garcia at work. Garcia is alleging claims of invasion of privacy and negligence against EarthLink, and says the company instructs its employees to use wiretapping, eavesdropping, recording and listening equipment to monitor telephone conversations without the callers’ knowledge or consent.
EarthLink tried to dismiss the class action lawsuit by unsuccessfully arguing that the telephone call to Garcia was not a confidential communication under the California Invasion of Privacy Act because the purpose of the call was to convey a message to one of Garcia’s co-workers.
U.S. District Judge Dana M. Shaw disagreed, saying: “The act prohibits ‘unconsented-to eavesdropping or recording of conversations regardless of whether the party expects that the content of the conversation may later be conveyed to a third party’ and ‘regardless of the content of the conversation.’”
The EarthLink Phone Call Recording Class Action Lawsuit case is Garcia v. EarthLink Inc., Case No. 12-cv-01129, U.S. District Court, Southern District of California.
Garcia is represented by Abbas Kazerounian of Kazerouni Law Group APC and Robert L. Hyde of Hyde & Swigart LLP.
Updated November 30th, 2012
All class action and lawsuit news updates are listed in the Lawsuit News section of Top Class Actions
Top Class Actions Legal Statement