Clients hang up in disbelief when lawyer calls to tell them of $61M verdict over unwanted calls
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The West Virginia law firm of Bailey & Glasser wants its class clients to know they are eligible for an award as a result of a $61 million verdict against Dish Network for its marketing calls.
Lawyer John Barrett and his colleagues are having a hard time getting their message across when they call to deliver the news, the Wall Street Journal reports. The clients are hanging up before the lawyers or a paralegal can explain, or they are hanging up in disbelief after hearing the figures.
Barrett and co-counsel Brian Glaser won a $20.4 million verdict against Dish last year, an amount that was tripled by the judge. As a result, more than 18,000 people who received the calls are each eligible receive $2,400 to $30,000, before payment of attorney fees and expenses.
The firm began making the calls after fewer than 8 percent of clients who received a letter about the verdict failed to return the required forms.
Keith Skriver of Arizona is in line to receive $30,000 for receiving 25 calls from Dish Network, according to the Journal. He didn’t respond to a voice mail left by the firm until he asked a friend who was a lawyer to check it out. Skriver got the go-ahead and signed up for his award, but is taking a wait-and-see approach.
If the money doesn’t materialize, “I don’t need to go to Paris anymore,” he told the newspaper.
