I’ve already tweeted my congratulations to Jay Edelson and the entire plaintiff’s team involved in this case, but I’ll repeat it here: congratulations! It’s nice when the good guys win one.
Jon Reid reports:
A federal jury has ordered a multi-level marketing company to pay $925 million for making nearly 2 million unsolicited telemarketing calls to consumers promoting weight-loss products.
The order from the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon is “the largest standing privacy verdict in our nation’s history,” Jay Edelson, whose firm Edelson PC is representing lead plaintiff Lori Wakefield, said in an email.
Read more on Bloomberg.
But counsel for defendant ViSalus has tried to play down the significance of the order. Eric J. Troutman reports:
But according to an e-mail received by TCPAWorld from ViSalus’ counsel— John O’Neal of Quarles & Brady—news of ViSalus’ demise may have been greatly exaggerated: “The statement that there was a $925[MM] damages award is not true. Rather, the verdict was a special form where the jury answered questions. Again, it was not a damages award and the judge has reserved ruling on damage issues for future briefs and hearings.”
He goes on to explain that Plaintiff may not have obtained the critical ruling needed to sustain a verdict: “[W]e believe that special verdict shows that plaintiff failed to prove essential elements of her class claim…. the jury wrote in Defendant’s favor on the special verdict form “we cant tell” (or similar language) for the two questions regarding the number of alleged calls to mobile phones and the number of alleged calls to residential phones.”
Read more on The National Law Review. It sounds like there’s more to come on this case and award.