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

The federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) is the core of every Maryland robocall case. It bars autodialed or prerecorded calls and texts to a cell phone without your consent, and it bars telemarketing to 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. Maryland residents most often reach us about spam text messages and wrong-number robocalls to a 410, 443, 301, or 240 number that was reassigned to them.

Maryland layers three statutes on top of that. The Maryland Telephone Consumer Protection Act, Commercial Law section 14-3201, says a person may not violate the federal Telemarketing Sales Rule or the federal TCPA, which turns every federal violation into a state one. Section 14-3202 makes that violation an unfair or deceptive trade practice under the Maryland Consumer Protection Act and, separately, says an individual affected by a violation may bring an action. The Stop the Spam Calls Act of 2023, enacted as Chapter 413, in effect since January 1, 2024, and codified at Commercial Law sections 14-4501 through 14-4503, goes further than federal law in four ways: a telephone solicitation by automated dialing, prerecorded voice, or text requires the called party’s prior express written consent; no solicitation may be made between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. in the called party’s time zone; no more than three solicitations on the same subject may be made to the same person in a 24-hour period, whatever numbers are used; and the caller may not block or alter the name and number that show on caller ID. The older Maryland Telephone Solicitations Act, Commercial Law section 14-2201 and following, governs sales made entirely by telephone. Maryland does not run a state no-call list; the Attorney General’s office directs residents to the national registry.

The Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division in Baltimore enforces all of these statutes and takes complaints through its online portal. Your own TCPA suit is a separate track, normally filed in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, which sits in Baltimore and Greenbelt and covers the whole state from Baltimore and Columbia to Germantown, Silver Spring, and Frederick. Maryland state counts can often be added to the same complaint, and a call at 8:30 p.m. or a fourth call in one day about the same subject is a clean state violation that also helps prove the caller acted willfully under the TCPA.

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