Dish, Plaintiffs in TCPA Class-Action Complaint at Odds Over Verdict Sheet

Dish Network and plaintiffs in a Telephone Consumer Protection Act class-action complaint are at odds over jury verdict instructions for the upcoming trial in U.S. District Court in Greensboro, North Carolina. In a trial memo filed Tuesday, the company and plaintiffs Thomas Krakauer and the others said they agreed on numerous issues on the verdict sheet, but some issues remain contested. Krakauer and the others said a point of contention is whether the number of calls or the phone numbers should be on the verdict sheet. They said they plan to introduce that information as evidence "and there is no need to re-state that evidence on the verdict sheet, and no need to force the jury to engage in mathematical computations." Dish said Krakauer and the others object to having the jury decide whether the class members actually received the telemarketing calls at issue or are the subscribers of the phone numbers called, but the court should toss out the plaintiffs' proposal to have a claims administrator post-trial decide this, instead of the jury. "There is no justification for relieving Plaintiff of his burden at trial on this one issue," Dish said. It also said the jury should be given the choice of assessing damages per call violation or on an aggregate basis. Either way, Dish added, the court can make sure any damages award doesn't exceed $500 per call.