JACKSONVILLE – A Jacksonville man claims he has been contacted by two debt collectors several times after asking the calls to stop.
Gregory Parish filed a complaint on Dec. 16 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Jacksonville Division against Synchrony Bank and Encore Receivable Management Inc. alleging violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff alleges that on July 12, 2016, he contacted Synchrony to explain that he is aware of his credit card accounts being overdue and demanded to cease calling him to collect the alleged debts. He also claims he told Encore to stop calling him on Nov. 11, 2016. Despite that, the plaintiff alleges the defendants continued calling him using an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial prerecorded voice without prior express consent from him, which caused him to suffer invasion of privacy, stress, anxiety and depression. He alleges Synchrony has called him 300 times from July to September 2016.
The plaintiff holds Synchrony Bank and Encore Receivable Management Inc. responsible because the defendants allegedly called plaintiff with such frequency meant to abuse or harass, contacted plaintiff without prior express consent and unlawfully utilized an automatic dialer and automated voice.
The plaintiff requests a trial by jury and seeks judgment against defendant, statutory, punitive, actual and treble damages, enjoinder from further violations, costs, interest, attorney's fees and further relief as the court may deem just. He is represented by Octavio Gomez of Morgan & Morgan PA in Tampa.
U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Jacksonville Division Case number 16-cv-01548