Most businesses that receive a letter from LAC have never heard of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. They have heard of robocalls. Some of them make a living from outbound calls and texts. What they have not heard is that the person on the other end of the line has, since 1991, held a private right to be paid for every unlawful call. That is what the letter is about.
Who LAC is
LAC Litigation & Enforcement Group LLC, known as LAC Advocacy, is a United States company. We document unlawful telemarketing calls and text messages as they happen, review them against the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, 47 U.S.C. § 227, the FCC’s rules at 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200 and state telemarketing law, and issue written pre-litigation demands to the businesses responsible. Matters that are not resolved may be referred to the TCPA law firms we partner with. We are not a law firm, and we do not give legal advice. We build the record and act on it.
Why the law works the way it does
Congress wrote the TCPA with a private right of action because it knew regulators could not keep up. Instead of waiting for the FCC or a state attorney general, the Act lets the person who received the call sue for $500 per violation, and lets a court raise that to $1,500 where the conduct was willful or knowing. There is no cap. Twenty calls are twenty violations. Every state has its own courts open to these claims, and several states, Florida first among them, have passed statutes of their own that stack on top.
The result is a law enforced largely by the people it protects. A demand letter is the first step in that enforcement. It is cheaper for everyone than a complaint, and most matters end there.
What the letter contains, and why
Every LAC demand lists each call or text with the number, the date and time in the recipient’s time zone, the content, and the Do Not Call Registry status of the number. Against each one it names the provision breached and the statutory damages that attach. It states a deadline and gives notice that the business should preserve its records.
The detail is deliberate. A business reading the letter should be able to go to its own dialer logs and find each contact. If it cannot, because the call was placed by a vendor or a lead generator, that is the first thing to find out, since under the Act a business is answerable for calls made on its behalf.
What the letter is for
A demand is an offer to resolve a matter on stated terms, before it is referred to counsel. A business that resolves at this stage hears nothing further. A business that disputes specific items in writing, with records, has its response reviewed against the record. A business that ignores the letter lets the deadline pass, after which the offer is withdrawn and the matter may go to a partner firm with the full file.
The guide at I received a letter. Now what? sets out the steps. The FAQ answers the questions we are asked most. The statutes, rules and decisions cited in every demand are collected under Authorities.