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Please Note! As I have not had a chance to fully compile the list of every Small Claims Court in the United States yet, please visit this list until such time. If and when I get my list fully compiled, I shall be including a lot of extra data such as links to the applicable court rules and which courts allow the filing of claims online as mine does. Suing Telemarketers - Simple and Cheap When most people think about the process of suing a business entity, they naturally consider it a complicated and expensive process. They consider having to...

So much for silence from telemarketers at the cherished dinner hour, or any other hour of the day. Complaints to the government are up sharply about unwanted phone solicitations, raising questions about how well the federal "do-not-call" registry is working. The biggest category of complaint: those annoying prerecorded pitches called robocalls that hawk everything from lower credit card interest rates to new windows for your home. Robert Madison, 43, of Shawnee, Kan., says he gets automated calls almost daily from "Ann, with credit services," offering to lower his interest rates. "I am completely fed up," Madison said in an interview....

I was just on my way out the door, rushed for time as usual, when the phone rang. Caller ID said, "000-000-0000." I had a pretty good idea who it'd be (in a general sense) but I was expecting a call from an out-of-town business associate that day, so I couldn't afford not to answer. "Hello?" I said warily. Suspicious pause. (This, in my experience, nearly always means an automated system is hooking a telemarketer up to the line.) And sure enough, "Yes, hello ma'am, may I speak with a... (pause) ...Mr. William J. Fields?" "There's no one by that...

I work at a mortgage company and I deal with people who do financial transactions so breathtakingly moronic that some them require a helmet. I think of one man who bought a jeep from a local dealership. When the jeep broke down, he took it to the dealership and asked them to repair it. When they couldn’t repair it, he asked to trade it in. When they couldn’t trade it in, he handed the salesman the keys and said, “Here, you deal with it.” Later, he bought a truck from another dealership, because it struck him that he might need...

We have been receiving numerous calls from (866) 325-2373 every day. When we answer, the caller hangs up. When we call back, the call is answered by an automated attendant. The company is not identified, all the operators are busy, and you have to leave a message. We have left a message several times telling them to take us off their call list. Our number is on the National No Call List and has been since the first day we could register. We have filed a complaint on the No Call website. Are other FReepers receiving these calls? I have...

WASHINGTON - The government proposed a $770,000 fine on Tuesday against a mortgage company for allegedly calling people who put their telephone numbers on the federal do-not-call registry. The Federal Communications Commission said the penalty against Phoenix-based Dynasty Mortgage, L.L.C. was the first imposed for apparent violations of national do-not call rules designed to curb telemarketing abuse. The FCC cited Dynasty Mortgage for 70 alleged violations. A maximum fine of $11,000 was imposed for instance because the company allegedly continued to make telemarketing calls after receiving a warning from the FCC, the five-member commission ruled in a unanimous decision. "Further,...

About 66 million Americans have signed up for the national Do Not Call Registry, resoundingly declaring their desire not to be bothered by telemarketers. "It's been a wild success," acknowledged Allen Hile, a spokesman for the Federal Trade Commission in Washington. So why mess with it? That's what the FTC says it may do in response to a petition from Voice Mail Broadcasting Corp., a Southern California direct-marketing firm that specializes in blitzing consumers with prerecorded phone messages. The company argues that the Federal Communications Commission allows such calls under certain circumstances, which is true, and that all it wants...

Dave Barry is a very funny man. Except when he gets junk phone calls. Then, the syndicated columnist becomes a very angry man. So angry, in fact, that he has twice published the phone number of a powerful telemarketing lobby, the American Teleservices Association, in his weekly humor column. His advice to readers: "Tell them what you think." Did they ever. So many angry calls came in after that the ATA shut down the number. Last Sunday, he gave out their new one. It's no wonder the group was bombarded. Consumers are fed up with the increasingly audacious gang of...

War of the laws?...whats next?

The best and fastest way to reinstate the National Do Not Call List, or an equal substitute, is to call your US Representative and two US Senators and tell them you want action right now! Stress the fact that 50,000,000 people signed up for the National Do Not Call List and as a politician having 50,000,000 people happy with you is a lot better than having 50,000,000 against them. Stress to them that action is needed right now! They can find a way to stop tele-marketers with 50,000,000 voters behind them.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - A federal judge has ruled that the Federal Trade Commission overstepped its authority in creating the national ``do-not-call'' list against telemarketers. The ruling came in a lawsuit brought by telemarketers who challenged the list of 50.6 million numbers submitted by people who do not want to receive business solicitation calls. The immediate impact of Tuesday's ruling by U.S. District Judge Lee R. West was not clear. He did not issue an order directing an action by the FTC. The list was to go into effect Oct. 1. West said the main issue in the case was...

<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. court in Oklahoma has blocked the national "do not call" list that would allow consumers to stop most unwanted telephone sales calls, the Direct Marketing Association said on Wednesday.</p> <p>The U.S. District Court in Oklahoma City said the Federal Trade Commission overstepped its authority when it set up the popular anti-telemarketing measure, according to the DMA.</p>

Popular do-not-call list bringing industry to its knees Aug. 11 — In the past three months, the hallways at Groesbeck-based Tel-A-Sell Marketing Inc. have become a lot less crowded. CEO Edd O’Connor has been forced to trim his telemarketing staff from 72 to 18.

Popular do-not-call list bringing industry to its kneesAug. 11 — In the past three months, the hallways at Groesbeck-based Tel-A-Sell Marketing Inc. have become a lot less crowded. CEO Edd O’Connor has been forced to trim his telemarketing staff from 72 to 18. “I WAS RUNNING a full house earlier this year,” said O’Connor, who also serves as president of the American Teleservices Association’s Great Lakes Chapter, which covers Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Michigan. One of the big reason for the cuts: the chilling effects of the National Do Not Call Registry and other similar efforts in statehouses across the...

Scott Mulford of the Illinois Attorney General's press office knows that telemarketing complaints are near the top of consumer complaints that their office receives. "It took some time, but an impetus was there from the aggravated public to take action," Mulford said. The Federal Trade Commission created the national do-not-call registry in late June to give consumers a choice of whether they wish to receive calls from telemarketers, according to the registry's Web site, www.donotcall.gov. The registry opened a toll-free number nationally on July 7. The purpose of the list is to limit the telemarketing calls a person can receive....