Sidebar: Don’t call me (maybe)

Welcome back, listeners, from what we hope was a calm, relaxing break.

If it was anything like ours, just when you cozied up with a summer read, you were likely jarred back to reality by a pesky robocall asking about your auto warranty.

Receiving unwanted robocalls remains a universal experience 32 years after Congress passed the Telephone Consumer Protection Act to empower Americans to fight off unwanted calls. In our ninth episode this season, we explain why the law did little to stop overseas scammers and instead created financial incentives for plaintiffs and their attorneys, ultimately leading to the Supreme Court's determination of what constituted an “autodialer.”

Now, an Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Taskforce of 49 attorneys general are taking on Avid Telecom, a Voice over Internet Protocol provider accused of sending or trying to send more than 24.5 billion calls.

Will the outcome inspire Americans to start answering their phones? Press one for yes or two for no.

Special guests:

• Noah Duguid, who sued Facebook over unwanted texts 
• Roger Anderson, founder of the Jolly Roger Telephone Company
• Eric Troutman, defense attorney and “czar” of the TCPA 
• Chris Laccinole, a frequent TCPA litigator  
• Isaac Shloss, chair of the Government Affairs Committee for the Professional Associations for Customer Engagement 
• Attorney Jay Edelson

Sidebar tackles the top stories you need to know from the legal world. Join reporters Hillel Aron, Kirk McDaniel, Amanda Pampuro and Kelsey Reichmann as they take you in and out of courtrooms in the U.S. and beyond and break down developments to help you understand how they affect your day-to-day life.

Kirk McDaniel produced this episode. Intro music by The Dead Pens. A transcript of this episode is available.

Editorial staff is Bill Dotinga, Sean Duffy and Jamie Ross. Special thanks to Joe Duhownik.

For more on robocalls:

• Arizona attorney general leads lawsuit against telecom company over robocalls
• Judge greenlights suit over telemarketing robocalls
• Texts from Facebook aren’t illegal robocalls, high court rules

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