Paronich Law nominates non-profit public interest group NCLC to receive funds.

In many of their joint cases over the years, Matthew McCue, Ted Broderick, Anthony Paronich, John Barrett, Jon Marshall, Alex Burke, and Dan Marovich have directed cy pres funds to the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC).

According to McCue, “when approving cy pres beneficiaries, courts frequently want to see a nexus between the harms alleged in the complaint and the beneficiary. For many years, NCLC has advocated for consumers on a wide host of issues including issues relating to consumer privacy, so they easily satisfy this nexus.

NCLC stands ready to assist with declarations as to NCLC’s suitability and experience concerning its work.”

“One of the reasons we wish to make sure NCLC receives cy pres, is that over the past few years, the telemarketing industry and its partners have amassed massive resources in an effort to redefine the telemarketing regulations in a manner that will make it easier for telemarketers and debt collectors to harass consumers. Margot Saunders, Senior Counsel at NCLC, has been instrumental in countering these efforts and her work is much appreciated. This is why we support NCLC with cy pres designations and will continue to do so.”

Two recent cases which provided valuable cy pres awards to NCLC include: Patriot Payment In a TCPA class action brought against a credit card processor called Patriot Payment, the lead plaintiff was Diana Mey, who is herself a consumer telemarketing activist from West Virginia. Ms. Mey was the lead or co-lead plaintiff on TCPA class actions that have resulted in the recovery of over $100 million for consumers nationwide. In this particular case, Ms. Mey received multiple telemarketing calls from Patriot Payment although her number had long been listed on the Do Not Call Registry. The calls sought to sell Ms. Mey credit card processing services. The defendant initially sought to “pick off ” Ms. Mey by making her a large individual offer of judgment. To her credit, because the class would receive nothing, Ms. Mey rejected the offer. Ms. Mey has done the same in every other TCPA class action in which the defendants have attempted to buy her off including one case, where Ms. Mey rejected a “pick off” of over $100,000. Without consumers like Ms. Mey, we would not be able to pursue these cases. Patriot Payment ultimately settled after two years of litigation for $3.7 million. The team on this case was Matthew McCue, Ted Broderick, Anthony Paronich, John Barrett, and Jon Marshall of Bailey & Glasser.

Sempris and Quality Resources was a TCPA class action brought against several entities who jointly participated in a somewhat unique scheme. Sempris sold goods over the internet, including of all things - slippers. Sempris then hired Quality Resources to call Sempris’ customers after they made an online purchase to purportedly “confirm” their purchase. The defendants jointly claimed that because the purpose of the call was to confirm the details of a prior purchase, the calls were not telemarketing calls subject to the TCPA. During the confirmation call, however, Quality Resources also sought to “up sell” the consumer as to additional goods sold by Sempris. Accordingly, the court ultimately ruled these calls were telemarketing calls subject to the TCPA. After three years of litigation, Sempris agreed to settle with the class for $2.15 million. Rather than settle, Quality Resources closed its doors. After noticing that a Manhattan penthouse owned by its principal was being promoted for sale on “Million Dollar Listing,” an amended complaint was filed seeking to hold the principal personally liable for the illegal telemarketing practices of Quality Resources. After another two years of litigation, this second half of the case settled for $3.3 million. The team on this case was Matthew McCue, Anthony Paronich, Ted Broderick, Alex Burke, and Dan Marovich.