How to File a TCPA Claim: What the Complaint Contains and Where It Is Filed

Before filing: the demand letter

Most TCPA matters do not begin in court. They begin with a letter from your attorney to the company that identifies you, describes the calls, cites the statute, states the per-call exposure, and invites the company to resolve the claim. Companies that have a compliance function often respond, because the math is public and the exposure is fixed. If the letter goes unanswered or the response is inadequate, the complaint is the next step. What that letter contains is covered on what a TCPA demand letter is.

Which court hears a TCPA claim

The TCPA is a federal statute with a private right of action, and it expressly allows suits in state court “if otherwise permitted by the laws or rules of court” of that state. In practice that gives three options:

• Federal district court. The most common venue for a represented plaintiff. The case is filed in the district where you live or where the defendant does business. Federal courts have the discovery tools needed to get dialer records and identify vendors.
• State court. Available, and sometimes preferred for procedural reasons. Defendants frequently remove TCPA cases to federal court anyway.
• Small claims. An option for a self-represented person with a small number of calls from an identifiable company, subject to the state’s dollar cap.

Your attorney chooses based on where the defendant can be served, where the calls were received, and which court’s procedures fit the case.

What the complaint contains

A complaint is the document that starts the lawsuit. A TCPA complaint follows a standard structure:

1. Parties. You (the plaintiff) and each company being sued (the defendants), including the business that hired the dialer, not only the vendor that placed the calls.
2. Jurisdiction and venue. Why this court can hear the case and why this location is proper.
3. Factual allegations. The calls: dates, the number that called, that it went to your cell phone, that a recording or dialer was used, that you never consented or that you revoked consent, and any stop requests.
4. Counts. One count per legal theory. A typical complaint pleads a count under 47 U.S.C. 227(b) for autodialed or prerecorded calls to a cell without consent, and, if you were on the registry, a separate count under 227(c) for Do Not Call violations. Willfulness is alleged to support the $1,500 tier.
5. Prayer for relief. What you ask for: statutory damages of $500 per violation, trebled to $1,500 for willful violations, an injunction ordering the calls to stop, and costs.

Filing, service, and the company’s deadline to answer

The attorney files the complaint electronically with the court and pays the filing fee (in federal court, $405 as of this writing). The court issues a summons. The defendant is then served: a process server or certified mail delivers the summons and complaint to the company’s registered agent. Service is what makes the lawsuit real for the defendant.

In federal court, the company has 21 days after service to answer or file a motion to dismiss. An answer admits or denies each allegation and lists defenses, usually consent. A motion to dismiss argues the complaint is legally deficient on its face. Either way, the case is now moving.

What gets filed after the complaint

The complaint is the first filing, not the last. Over the following months the attorney typically files or serves:

• Initial disclosures identifying your evidence and witnesses.
• Discovery requests: written questions, document requests for dialer logs and consent records, and subpoenas to carriers and dialing vendors.
• Motions as needed, for example to compel records the company will not produce, or for summary judgment when the records prove the violation without a trial. Higgs v. Golden Title Loans (No. 2:20-cv-2559, W.D. Tenn.) was decided that way: 385 wrong-number calls at $1,500 each, $577,500, on summary judgment. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Most cases settle somewhere along this path once the records are on the table.

Your part in the filing

You do not draft, file, or serve anything. What you provide:

• Your call log, voicemails, and text screenshots.
• A short written statement of the facts, sometimes signed as a declaration.
• Answers to the attorney’s questions about consent: whether you ever did business with the company or gave it your number.

You may later answer written discovery questions with the attorney’s help, and in a contested case you may be deposed. Most TCPA plaintiffs never see a courtroom. The clock to file is generally four years from the calls, so the earlier the review, the more calls fit inside the window. Max Morgan, Esq. (PA Bar #316096, The Weitz Firm, LLC) files these claims nationwide on contingency, with no fee unless you recover.

Related: How to sue a telemarketer: the full process · What is a TCPA demand letter? · What happens after you file a robocall claim · TCPA statute of limitations