Robocalls and the TCPA

The federal law that restricts automated and prerecorded calls and texts to your phone, gives you a Do Not Call right, and lets you sue for a fixed amount per illegal call.

Looking for a lawyer rather than a definition? Skip to the state-by-state list of law firms for this.

What it means

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act restricts three things: calls or texts to a mobile phone made with an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice without the called party's prior express consent; prerecorded telemarketing calls to residential lines; and telemarketing calls to numbers on the national Do Not Call Registry. It is one of the few consumer statutes that a consumer can enforce directly, for a fixed statutory amount per violating call or text - increased for willful violations - with no need to prove any loss.

Consent is the center of most disputes. Giving a business your number does not by itself consent to automated marketing; for telemarketing robocalls the consent must be in writing, and consent can be revoked by any reasonable means. Calls from debt collectors, banks and health-care providers are covered too, though under different consent rules from marketers, and some categories - emergency calls, certain government calls - are exempt.

What counts as an "automatic telephone dialing system" narrowed considerably after the Supreme Court read the definition to require equipment that generates numbers randomly or sequentially, which most modern dialers do not; prerecorded-voice and Do Not Call claims were unaffected and now carry most of the enforcement weight. The Registry itself is free, a registration does not expire, and a marketer must honor it and keep its own internal do-not-call list on request.

Where this comes from

When people hire a lawyer for this

Keep the evidence first - the numbers, dates, screenshots of texts, and any record of telling the caller to stop - because a claim is built call by call. A lawyer can tell you which of the three prohibitions the calls fall under and whether the caller can be identified and reached, which is the practical limit on many of these cases; a caller spoofing a number from abroad is not a defendant anyone can serve.

Worried about the cost? A lawyer can be hired for one part of a case only (limited-scope representation), may be paid from what a claim recovers (contingency fee), or may be free through a pro bono program or legal aid; a court can also waive its own filing fees.

Find a lawyer for this in your state

Choose your state to see Consumer Protection law firms in the city where we list the most; your city may be under “other cities”, A to Z. A state marked “Consumer Rights” has no Consumer Protection listing yet and opens the broader page.

• Alabama (Birmingham)
  +1 other city

  • Montgomery
• Alaska (Anchorage)
• Arizona (Chandler)
  +6 other cities

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  +19 other cities

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  • and 7 more with fewer listed firms
• Colorado (Aurora)
  +2 other cities

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• Delaware (Wilmington, Consumer Rights)
• District of Columbia (Washington)
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  +5 other cities

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• Georgia (Atlanta)
• Hawaii (Honolulu, Consumer Rights)
• Idaho (Boise, Consumer Rights)
• Illinois (Chicago)
• Indiana (Fort Wayne)
  +1 other city

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• Iowa (Des Moines)
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  +1 other city

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  +2 other cities

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• Massachusetts (Boston)
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  +1 other city

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  +1 other city

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• Nebraska (Lincoln)
  +1 other city

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  +2 other cities

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  +1 other city

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  +2 other cities

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• North Carolina (Charlotte)
  +5 other cities

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  • Winston-Salem
• North Dakota (Fargo, Consumer Rights)
• Ohio (Cincinnati)
  +3 other cities

  • Cleveland
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  • Toledo
• Oklahoma (Oklahoma City)
  +1 other city

  • Tulsa
• Oregon (Portland)
• Pennsylvania (Philadelphia)
  +1 other city

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• Rhode Island (Providence)
• South Carolina (Columbia)
• South Dakota (Sioux Falls, Consumer Rights)
• Tennessee (Nashville)
  +1 other city

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• Texas (Houston)
  +12 other cities

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  • Irving
  • Laredo
  • Lubbock
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• Utah (Salt Lake City, Consumer Rights)
• Vermont (Burlington)
• Virginia (Richmond)
  +3 other cities

  • Chesapeake
  • Norfolk
  • Virginia Beach
• Washington (Seattle)
  +1 other city

  • Tacoma
• West Virginia (Charleston)
• Wisconsin (Madison)
  +1 other city

  • Milwaukee
• Wyoming (Cheyenne)

Related terms

Other entries in the same area of law, each written from the same primary sources.

• Automatic Renewal and Negative Option SubscriptionsThe federal and state rules on subscriptions that keep charging until you cancel - what a seller must disclose and obtain before enrolling you, the cancellation mechanism it must offer, and where the law currently stands.
• Billing Error Dispute (Credit Card Chargeback)The federal procedure for disputing a charge on a credit card statement - a written process with deadlines on both sides that the card issuer must follow, not a courtesy it may offer.
• Class ActionOne lawsuit brought by named plaintiffs on behalf of a larger group with the same injury.
• Cooling-Off Rule (Canceling a Door-to-Door Sale)The federal right to cancel certain sales made at your home or away from the seller's regular place of business, the notice the seller must give you, and the many sales it does not reach.
• Credit Freeze and Fraud AlertTwo free federal tools for stopping identity thieves from opening accounts in your name - one that locks your credit file, one that warns lenders to check who they are dealing with.
• Credit Report DisputeThe federal process for forcing a credit bureau and the company that reported an item to investigate information you say is wrong.
• Data Breach Notification RightsWhat a business must tell you when your personal information is exposed, which laws require it, what the notice must say, and what a person whose data was breached can actually claim.
• Debt Validation Notice and Disputing a DebtThe written notice a debt collector must send when it first contacts you, what it must contain, and the dispute right it opens - during which the collector must stop until it verifies the debt.
• Fair Debt Collection (Collector Conduct Rules)Federal limits on what a third-party debt collector may say and do - including a written demand that stops contact, and a 30-day right to make them verify the debt.
• Gift Card and Prepaid Card RulesThe federal limits on gift card expiration and fees, the state laws that go further, and the separate protections for reloadable prepaid cards used like bank accounts.
• Identity Theft Recovery RightsThe federal rights a victim of identity theft can use to remove fraudulent accounts from a credit report, obtain the records of what the thief did, stop the debts being collected, and limit liability for the charges.
• Implied Warranty and the Magnuson-Moss ActThe promises the law reads into a sale whether or not anyone wrote them down, and the federal act that limits how a seller can take them away.
• Mandatory Arbitration ClauseA term in a consumer contract that sends any dispute to a private arbitrator instead of a court, usually alone rather than as part of a class - and federal law makes most of them enforceable.
• Right of Rescission (Home Loans)A federal right to cancel certain loans secured by your home during a short window after signing - and for much longer if the lender failed to give the required disclosures.
• Time-Barred DebtA debt so old that the statute of limitations bars a lawsuit to collect it - what a collector may and may not do about it, how a payment can revive it, and why the credit-reporting clock is a different clock.
• Unauthorized Debit Card and Electronic Transfers (Regulation E)The federal rules that limit a consumer's loss from an unauthorized debit card, ATM, ACH or payment-app transfer, require the bank to investigate an error, and decide who bears a loss the consumer was tricked into sending themselves.
• Unfair and Deceptive Practices (UDAP)The consumer-protection laws, one federal and one in every state, that make it illegal for a business to mislead you or treat you unfairly - and the state versions are the ones a consumer can actually sue under.
• Vehicle RepossessionA lender's right to take back a financed car after default without going to court - subject to rules about how it is taken, how it is sold, and what you can still be made to pay afterwards.
• Wage GarnishmentA legal order requiring an employer to withhold part of someone's pay and send it to a creditor.

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