Texas Judge Denies TCPA Plaintiff’s Motion to Proceed Without Local Counsel
U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr for Northern Texas in Dallas denied Tiffany Harris' Feb. 5 motion to proceed with her Telephone Consumer Protection Act class action without the requirement of local counsel, said a text-only docket entry Thursday (docket 3:23-cv-02884).…
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Starr ordered Harris to appoint local counsel under Local Rule 83.10 by March 7. Harris’ Dec. 29 complaint alleges that American HomeSecures, in an “overzealous attempt” to market its smart home security services, willfully or knowingly made, and continues to make, unsolicited telemarketing phone calls to residential phones using an artificial or prerecorded message without the prior express written consent of the calls’ recipients, and to numbers listed on the national do not call registry (see 2401010002). The plaintiff’s motion said her current counsel of record, Amy Ginsburg of the Kazerouni Law Group in Costa Mesa, California, who is admitted to practice in Texas, “has extensive experience handling TCPA matters” and has handled “countless cases” before the federal courts. Her rationale for seeking leave to proceed without local counsel was “to keep fees and costs low, and aid settlement of this matter,” said her motion.