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ARTICLE · 20 AUGUST 2018

Freeze! Drop That Voicemail!

BakerHostetler
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By now, we know you're familiar with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and how one of its goals is to curb nuisance calls to cellphones.

United StatesMedia, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment
Alan Friel
Alan Friel
Holly Melton
Holly Melton
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District court interprets TCPA to cover direct-to-voicemail messages

No Matter Who Calls …

By now, we know you’re familiar with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and how one of its goals is to curb nuisance calls to cellphones.

Since its inception, the TCPA has been interpreted to address more and more forms of telephonic communication, including text messages (and other communications delivered as SMS messages). Figuring out a way around the act isn’t easy, but nonetheless, some clever users are giving it a shot using technologies that place voice messages directly in consumers’ voicemail boxes.

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One such consumer, Michigan native Karen Saunders, received a number of voicemails during a period of four years, including a time between June 2016 and April 2017, which she alleged were “recorded ahead of time, and then … played when the dialing system detected that the call was answered by plaintiff’s voice mail.” Saunders’ proposed

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