TAMPA — On Dec. 8, Florida resident Jennifer McCambridge filed a complaint with the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida against Bank of America claiming harassment and invasion of privacy against the business.
The cause of action for McCambridge to file suit was the restrictions of telephone use, as stated in the case file. According to a previous story by The Florida Record, McCambridge claims Bank of America failed to stop calling her.
While McCambridge was a customer of the bank, she had signed a consent form that allowed the bank to contact her via her personal cellphone and "any other form of communication" in regards to collection of any debt she may have accrued. She "revoked her consent" on Jan. 14, 2016.
Although the consent was revoked, she claims the calls never stopped coming from Bank of America. She is suing for $500 for each call she received from the bank after she revoked consent in January 2016, The Florida Record reported.
"Under Florida law, you're supposed to stop calling,” Anthony DiMarco of the Florida Bankers Association told The Florida Record.
DiMarco said that it can often be a time lag when customers have revoked consent with businesses. An example he provided was when customers, "Walk into an attorney's office at 4:00 and walk out at 4:30 and the bank calls me." For that type of situation, "they (the bank or business) has no way of knowing those documents to revoke consent were signed, or it could be in the queue of being mailed out."
He said one has to give the business he or she is revoking a time frame for it to receive the signed and updated documents and contracts.
"It will depend on what the judge says and if they settle. A lot of things could happen,” DiMarco said in regards to the expected verdict of the case.
DiMarco said that each case is different, but that if she does in fact "owe a debt to the bank she's supposed to pay." He also noted that when customers "borrow from the bank, we give them somebody else's deposit," meaning, "My loan is your payment."
“You’re loaning the bank money with your deposit,” he said.
Since the initial file of the suit, the court is awaiting Bank of America to give the court an answer on the motion filed by McCambridge. The bank has until Jan. 23 to give an answer on the time frame of the calls, according to www.pacermonitor.com. As of Jan. 10, no update had been given on the site regarding the case.
McCambridge is represented by Christopher Boss with the Florida Boss Law Firm.