WASHINGTON, D.C.  Nov. 18 (DPI) – A 1991 law banning telemarketing calls to cell phones has spurred more and more consumer-protection cases, which has benefited trial lawyers, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal.

According to the report, more than $200 million in settlements have been paid out in recent years by plaintiffs, some of them companies that had been calling to collect from deadbeat borrowers. The article cites a San Diego attorney who has brought cases based on violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

Well intended as the law was, today many people have only cell phones, and cannot be reached by voice any other way. Further, the cost of calls to cell phones has plummeted since 1991; such high “inbound call fees” were a reason the law was passed in the first place.

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act, or TCPA, “was passed in 1991 by lawmakers hoping to blunt telemarketing and end expensive, unwanted calls to cellphones. But even though those calls are cheap now and many people no longer use land lines, the law has found a lucrative new life as a tool for plaintiffs’ attorneys. Since 2012, more than a dozen companies, including Papa John’s International Inc., Bank of America Corp. and a Jiffy Lube International Inc. franchisee, have agreed to more than $200 million in settlements in TCPA suits. Four-fifths of all federal TCPA cases filed in or transferred to federal court have occurred in the past five years, according to a search of court records.”

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303755504579203933125481194