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An unintentional tip-off from a reader about a Family First Life lawsuit occurred a few days ago. Family First Life’s proposed class-action lawsuit has been independently verified by me.
In Florida, the lawsuit was filed. An amended complaint was filed on February 28th, and we’re going to go over it today.
Reynaldo Suescum and Francisco Baserva are the alleged class-action plaintiffs. Neither Suescum nor Baserva have any connection to Family First Life, a non-profit organization.
The sole defendant is Family First Life LLC, a Connecticut corporation. Family First Life allegedly bombarded Suescum and Baserva with robocalls at the end of last year, according to the plaintiffs.
According to the plaintiffs, the calls violated the TCPA and the Florida Telephone Solicitation Act (FTSA). On September 29th, 2021, an SMS was sent to Suescum’s phone as evidence of the first robocall.
Suescum was sent an SMS from Michelle, who claims to be Family First Life’s hiring manager, offering a $2,800 to $3,900 per week salary. The network acknowledged Suescum’s response of “Stop” to the message.
According to the complainants, there were no instructions on how to opt out of receiving future messages in Family First Life’s unsolicited SMS. Family First Life sent Suescum another unsolicited SMS on October 18th, despite acknowledging that no further communication would be sent.
“Teri with Family First Life” was the sender of this message, which was sent via a different phone number. There were no income claims made, and there were no instructions on how to opt out. The SMS, on the other hand, was unwelcome and in contravention of Suescum’s prior request to be opted out.
Family First Life sent Baserva two identical SMSs, one on September 4th and one on October 8th. According to Baserva, his phone number has been on the “National Do-Not-Call Registry” since December of last year. Suescum and Baserva both claim to “provide Family First Life with their express consent to be contacted.”
According to the Defendants, the refusal to honor opt-out requests by Family First Life is a sign of the Defendant’s failure to comply. In addition, the company should notify and train its telemarketing staff about any internal do not call list.
Family First Life used a computer software system to automatically select and dial the Plaintiff’s and the Class Members’ telephone numbers in order to transmit the aforementioned telephonic sales calls. Since opt-out confirmations from Family First Life are instantaneous, they clearly demonstrate the company’s ability to quickly and easily comply with Suescum’s and putative class members’ requests to be removed from the program.
Although Family First Life had access to cutting-edge technology, they ignored customers’ requests to stop receiving text messages and instead pursued an unchecked text message marketing campaign.Proposed class action by the plaintiff seeks to establish a total of three classes: If you were contacted by Family First Life even though you had previously opted out, or if you were contacted even though your phone number is on the National Do Not Call Registry, you are eligible for compensation.
Class members, according to the plaintiffs, will “number in the several thousand, if not more,” if the case is certified. According to information and belief, automated calls have been made to cell phone numbers belonging to thousands of consumers across the United States without their prior express consent, to thousands of consumers who have already revoked their consent, and to consumers who are registered on the national do-not-call registry. There are so many people in the classes that it’s thought that joining them all would be impractical.
Discovery is the only way to find out the exact number and identities of the class members. In the event of class certification, legal fees, statutory damages, certification of Family First Life’s violations of the FTA and TCPA, an injunction prohibiting further violations of these laws, and costs are all sought by the plaintiffs. It’s interesting that Family First Life is being sued for illegally contacting customers, given that leads are an important part of their business model.
Life insurance policies are sold through Family First Life’s primary business model. This is demonstrated by SMS marketing (“a surplus of leads”) and Family First Life’s own marketing.
When I was researching Family First Life for this review, I didn’t come across any mention of SMS leads. When it comes to the FTC Act, Family First Life may be breaking the law by selling unsolicited leads to affiliates in bulk.
Family First Life requested an extension of time to respond to the amended complaint on March 4th. Later that day, the motion was granted, and Family First Life was granted until April 13th.
The Family First Life class action has been added to our calendar. As we continue to investigate, we’ll keep you posted.
