Robocall Lawyer in Illinois: $500 to $1,500 Per Illegal Call

The federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) is the core of every Illinois robocall case. It makes it illegal to call or text a cell phone with an autodialer or a prerecorded voice without your consent, and it makes it illegal to keep telemarketing a number on the Do Not Call Registry. Each call or text is a separate violation worth $500, and up to $1,500 when the caller acted willfully or knowingly. Illinois residents contact us most often about prerecorded calls to a cell phone and wrong-number robocalls that keep coming for a person who has never had your number.

Illinois has two statutes of its own. The Telephone Solicitations Act, 815 ILCS 413, governs live-operator sales calls: no calls between 9 p.m. and 8 a.m., the operator must give a name, the business, and the purpose immediately, and the business must remove you from its contact list when you ask. Section 25 of that Act lets an injured customer sue for damages, with the court able to award three times actual damages. The Automatic Telephone Dialers Act, 815 ILCS 305, covers machines. No autodialer may place a call between 9 p.m. and 9 a.m., an autodialer may not play a prerecorded message without the called party’s consent, and section 30 gives a consumer both treble actual damages and $500 in statutory damages per violation, plus costs and attorney fees. Illinois once ran a Restricted Call Registry, but 815 ILCS 402 was repealed by Public Act 100-621, so the national registry is the only list a caller has to check for a 312, 773, 630, or 815 number.

The Illinois Attorney General’s Consumer Fraud Bureau enforces both Acts and takes complaints from Chicago, Springfield, and Carbondale offices. Your own lawsuit is a separate track. Illinois is split into three federal districts: the Northern District of Illinois, sitting in Chicago and Rockford, covers Chicago, Aurora, Joliet, Naperville, and the collar counties; the Central District covers Springfield, Peoria, and Champaign; and the Southern District covers the Metro East and southern Illinois. A TCPA claim is filed in the district where you live or were called, and Illinois state-law counts can often be added to the same complaint, which is one reason Illinois cases can be worth more than the federal number alone.

Max Morgan, Esq. of The Weitz Firm reviews call records for Illinois residents at no charge. Cases are handled nationwide under the federal TCPA. Local counsel is associated where Illinois rules require it. You pay no fee unless you recover. The federal TCPA limitations period is generally four years, and Illinois state claims can run on different clocks, so talk to us before assuming there is time.