Justin O. Kay

Justin O. Kay

Justin Kay advises and defends business clients regarding their interactions and communications with consumers. He appears regularly on behalf of clients before federal and state courts, federal agencies and independent self-regulatory bodies, such as the National Advertising Division of the Better Business Bureau. Justin’s practice focuses on defending clients in the growing number of complex class actions arising under federal and state consumer protection and privacy laws such as the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act and the California Consumer Privacy Act. He is a deputy leader of the litigation practice group.

View the full bio for Justin O. Kay at the Faegre Drinker website.

Articles by Justin O. Kay:


The Big Chill: How The FCC’s Reading Of The TCPA Violates The First Amendment And Demands The Impossible

As the defense bar’s preeminent public resource on TCPA litigation and regulation, TCPA Blog has been invited to contribute a regular column to Law360. In the first such column, Bradley Andreozzi, Michael Daly, and Justin Kay discuss how the FCC’s interpretations of the TCPA violate the First Amendment rights. They write:

For an agency charged with regulating communications, the Federal Communications Commission has shown itself to be remarkably indifferent to First Amendment rights. In its recent brief in the consolidated appeal from its July 2015 omnibus ruling on the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the FCC blandly assured the D.C. Circuit that “[e]very court” has held that the TCPA’s restrictions “easily pass muster under the First Amendment.” FCC Brief at 73-74. But it all but ignored that, rather than “directly challenge the TCPA’s constitutionality,” the petitioners in that appeal challenge the FCC’s “interpretations of the statute.” Id. at 72-73. On that issue, the D.C. Circuit will be writing on a clean slate, and the First Amendment challenges are serious.

They then highlight three serious First Amendment concerns, specifically that the FCC’s: (1) healthcare exemption restricts necessary speech; (2) recycled numbers ruling demands the impossible; and (3) ATDS interpretation is unconstitutionally vague.

Click here to read the full article.

Bradley Andreozzi and Justin Kay Discuss TCPA in Modern Healthcare

TCPA Blog contributors Bradley Andreozzi and Justin Kay were recently featured in a Modern Healthcare article about a class action targeting Prospect Medical Group’s Southern California Hospital at Culver City. The suit alleges that the hospital violated the TCPA when its patient department called the plaintiff’s cell phone without the requisite consent in an effort to collect on a debt for services rendered at the facility. The article examined how the hospital became one of the first providers to be sued following the Federal Communications Commission’s July 2015 Omnibus ruling that narrowed the FCC’s reading of the scope of the required prior express consent for automated calls to patients. Continue reading “Bradley Andreozzi and Justin Kay Discuss TCPA in Modern Healthcare”

FCC Responds In Consolidated Appeal From Its July 2015 Omnibus Ruling

On Friday, January 15, 2016, the Federal Communications Commission filed its response to the arguments of the joint Petitioners in the consolidated appeal from its July 10, 2015 Omnibus Ruling. The Commission’s brief addresses the scope of its statutory authority, the definition of an “automatic telephone dialing system” (“ATDS”), the meaning of “called party” and the potential liability for calls to recycled numbers, the ability to revoke consent, healthcare-related calls and the emergency purpose exception, and First Amendment challenges to the Commission’s interpretations of the statute. Its main arguments are summarized below.

Continue reading “FCC Responds In Consolidated Appeal From Its July 2015 Omnibus Ruling”

Who Bears Liability For That Call Or Fax? Courts Continue To Wrestle With Direct And Vicarious Liability

Whenever more than one individual or entity is allegedly involved in the “sending” of a fax or the making of a call or text, two key questions in the litigation are: (i) what must be pleaded to state a claim against each party and (ii) if indeed there was a violation, who bears responsibility for it?

Continue reading “Who Bears Liability For That Call Or Fax? Courts Continue To Wrestle With Direct And Vicarious Liability”

Plaintiff’s Counsel Concedes Applicability of Arbitration Provision to TCPA Suit

The Eastern District of North Carolina recently granted a motion compelling arbitration in a TCPA case involving debt-collection calls allegedly made to plaintiff’s cellular telephone. See Rice v. Credit One Fin., No. 5:15-130, 2015 WL 4528933 (E.D.N.C. July 27, 2015). As previously covered here, here, and here, district courts around the country have demonstrated a willingness to order arbitration when TCPA claims fall within the scope of an arbitration agreement.

Continue reading “Plaintiff’s Counsel Concedes Applicability of Arbitration Provision to TCPA Suit”

First Challenge to July 10, 2015 Declaratory Ruling Already Filed

While the July 10, 2015 Declaratory Ruling and Order (our summary of which can be found here) was released after the close of business on Friday, one petitioner has already filed a petition for review of the Declaratory Ruling: ACA International (the Association of Credit and Collection Professionals) (“ACA”).  ACA filed its petition for review with the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on July 10, and filed an amended petition on July 13. See ACA Int’l v. FCC, No. 15-1211 (D.C. Cir. filed July 10, 2015).  ACA challenges the FCC’s “treatment of ‘capacity’ within the definition of an automatic telephone dialing system,” the FCC’s “treatment of predictive dialers,” and the FCC’s interpretation of the term “‘prior express consent’ (including its treatment of reassigned numbers.” Amended Petition for Review at 2-3, ACA Int’l v. FCC, No. 15-1211 (D.C. Cir. filed July 13, 2015), Doc. No. 1562251. ACA asks the DC Circuit  to hold unlawful the FCC’s treatment of “capacity” and compel the FCC to “treat ‘capacity’ in a way that comports with a caller’s right of due process and free speech;” hold unlawful the FCC’s treatment of “predictive dialers” and compel the FCC to “treat them in a way that does not expand the statutory definition . . . beyond the definition that Congress enacted;” and hold unlawful the FCC’s treatment of “prior express consent, including the Commission’s treatment of reassigned numbers,” and compel the Commission to establish either a “viable safe harbor for autodialed ‘wrong number’ non-telemarketing calls to reassigned wireless numbers” or “define ‘called party’ as a call’s intended recipient.”  Id. at 4-5. 

Illinois Federal Court Follows Eleventh Circuit’s Broad Definition of “Sender” in Blast Fax Case

Through prior posts (see here, here, and here), we have monitored the FCC’s somewhat perplexing distinction between calls and faxes in the context of analyzing direct and vicarious liability under the TCPA. Just two months ago, the FCC’s position, as originally set forth in a letter brief, was adopted by the Eleventh Circuit in Palm Beach Golf Center-Boca, Inc. v. Sarris, 781 F.3d 1245 (11th Cir. 2015) (“Sarris”). The Sarris court held that “a person whose services are advertised in an unsolicited fax transmission, and on whose behalf the fax is transmitted, may be held liable directly” under the TCPA.

Continue reading “Illinois Federal Court Follows Eleventh Circuit’s Broad Definition of “Sender” in Blast Fax Case”

The FTC Is Looking For A Few Good Robocall Hackers

The FCC is not the only federal agency tasked with regulating telephone calls. The FTC also regulates telephone calls pursuant to the Telemarketing Sales Rule (“TSR”) (16 C.F.R. § 310 et seq.). And while the scope of the TCPA and the TSR differs, the two sets of regulations overlap in a key area—prerecorded calls. See 47 C.F.R. § 227(b)(1); 16 C.F.R. § 310(b)(iv). As we have noted in a previous post, these regulations are not entirely consistent.

Continue reading “The FTC Is Looking For A Few Good Robocall Hackers”

Federal Court Finds That TCPA Plaintiff Consented To Debt Collection Calls by Providing Phone Number On Hospital Admission Form

On June 25, Judge Michael Anello of the Southern District of California granted summary judgment in favor of defendant Sharp Healthcare (“Sharp”) in Hudson v. Sharp Healthcare, 13cv1807-MMA, a purported class action alleging two counts under the TCPA (Count I for a negligent violation and Count II for a knowing/willful violation) regarding automated calls concerning unpaid hospital bills, ending that matter absent an appeal.

The original complaint was filed on August 2, 2013, and was comprised primarily of legal assertions (including citations to case law) and boilerplate asserting that defendant had violated the TCPA. The only purported fact alleged was that “Plaintiff was admitted to Sharp on or around September 25, 2012 and may have given them her cellular telephone number ending in 5954 at that time so Sharp could manually contact her about her treatment,” and that she did not consent to receiving autodialed calls. Complaint ¶¶ 14-15 [Dkt. No. 1] (emphasis added). The plaintiff later was granted leave to file an amended complaint that hedged her claims, alleging that if plaintiff provided her number to Sharp, “it was provided to Defendant solely to allow Defendant to contact Plaintiff about medical treatment follow-up” and reiterated that she “did not provide prior express consent to Defendant to be called by an [ATDS].” First Amended Complaint, ¶ 13 [Dkt. No. 29-2].

Continue reading “Federal Court Finds That TCPA Plaintiff Consented To Debt Collection Calls by Providing Phone Number On Hospital Admission Form”