Class Action: Preferred Collection & Management Services Placed Debt Collection Calls Without Consent

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Preferred Collection & Management Services, Inc. faces a proposed class action over its alleged practice of placing pre-recorded debt collection calls to consumers’ cell phones after they’ve demanded that the calls cease.

Per the case, the defendant has violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) by placing “harassing and abusive” calls to consumers’ phones after being informed that the calls were unwanted and should stop.

Preferred Collection & Management Services, according to the suit, is a nationally recognized debt collection agency who collects medical debts owed to third parties. The plaintiff, a Lakeland, Florida resident, says he began receiving calls from Preferred in July 2020 pertaining to an alleged debt stemming from a hospital emergency room visit. 

According to the case, the plaintiff advised the debt collector in November that “he had no money to pay the alleged subject debt” and requested that the calls cease. The lawsuit says Preferred Collection & Management Services responded by stating unsympathetically that “the debt wouldn’t just disappear,” and continued to place the calls to the man’s cell phone.

According to the suit, the defendant has placed “numerous unwanted and unconsented to collection calls” to the plaintiff’s phone and left pre-recorded voice messages whenever he did not answer.

The lawsuit claims the calls have violated the plaintiff’s privacy and caused him “actual harm, including but not limited to, aggravation that accompanies unsolicited robocalls, increased risk of personal injury resulting from the distraction caused by the robocalls, wear and tear to Plaintiff’s cellular phone, loss of battery charge, loss of concentration, mental anguish, nuisance, the per-kilowatt electricity costs required to recharge Plaintiff’s cellular telephone as a result of increased usage of Plaintiff’s telephone services, and wasting Plaintiff’s time.”

The plaintiff looks to represent anyone in the U.S. to whose cell phone the defendant placed, or caused to be placed, a call using an artificial or pre-recorded voice without consent to do so within the past four years and until the date of class certification.

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