PHILADELPHIA (Legal Newsline) - Even though a federal appeals court has concluded a man likely schemed Credit One Bank in order to sue it under a federal telemarketing law, he won't have to pay the company's attorneys fees incurred fighting him.
A June 15 ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit struck $74,000 in penalties that Adam and Genese Lieberman were facing after Adam filled out a credit card application for his wife but listed his phone number.
Genese failed to pay the balance on the card. Credit One called Adam's phone hundreds of times, and he started arbitration proceedings under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (which provides statutory penalties of up to $1,500 per call."
However, the arbitrator sided with Credit One's fraud counterclaims. The company argued everything that had happened was designed to manufacture a TCPA claim, and the arbitrator found it was Adam's seventh nearly identical arbitration.
There was also a recorded call that suggested he wanted the calls to continue, the Third Circuit said. Ultimately, the arbitrator awarded Credit One $286,064.62 in lawyer fees and costs.
The arbitration award moved to New Jersey federal court, where Judge Anne Thompson affirmed the award and added $74,000 more for the expense of going to federal court.
But the Third Circuit says that last bit was too much, even though it affirmed the arbitrator's findings.
Citing New Jersey precedent, it wrote: "While it is true that 'a prevailing party can recover those fees if they are expressly provided for by statute, court rule, or contract,' the parties have not identified any statute or court rule that applies here."
Lieberman once claimed he made one-third of his annual income from lawsuits brought under the TCPA. Previous Legal Newsline coverage has chronicled professional plaintiffs, one of whom admitted to trying to game the system to manufacture calls. Another plaintiff has made more than $800,000 filing lawsuits.