Florida Consumer Bites Back Against Intrusive Cell Phone Calls And Text Messages

PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. – On May 19, the Pinellas County courts received a class action lawsuit against Goodwin Insurance Advisors, LLC of St. Petersburg.

The firm is accused of invading the privacy and causing aggravation, annoyance, and inconvenience for presumably countless Florida residents who have received the company’s automated phone calls, text messages, or voicemails.

Such communications were illegally imposed upon Plaintiff Norman Knoche, an individual who never consented to receive communications from the company.

In July 2021, Florida enacted new restrictions against companies with automated dialing systems and the calling, text messaging, or voicemailing of consumers without prior written consent.

According to the class-action lawsuit, The Florida Telephone Solicitation Act prohibits companies who “make or knowingly allow a telephonic sales call to be made if such call involves an automated system for the selection or dialing of telephone numbers or the playing of a recorded message when a connection is completed to a number called without the prior express written consent of the called party.”

In JDR, an online publication of The Jacksonville Bar Association, Megan Moon writes on May 2 that, “more than 30 putative class action lawsuits have been filed against consumer-facing entities in Florida courts” since the act “gained teeth” last July.

In a nutshell, the FTSA requires a company to obtain a signature by a consumer to commence and continue automated dialing marketing activity. The specific phone number allowed to be used in automated dialing is to be rendered by the consenting consumer.

Companies cannot restrict consumers from purchasing or investing in their products, goods or services simply because they will not consent to receive automated calls and messages.

In Knoche’s class-action lawsuit, it is stated he never consented to automated calls or text messages from Goodwin Insurance.

According to the class-action lawsuit, The Florida Telephone Solicitation Act prohibits companies who “make or knowingly allow a telephonic sales call to be made if such call involves an automated system for the selection or dialing of telephone numbers or the playing of a recorded message when a connection is completed to a number called without the prior express written consent of the called party.” — According to court documents, on or about March 11, 2022, Defendant sent the following telephonic sales call to
Plaintiff’s cellular telephone number

His attorneys, Andrew J. Shamis of Shamis and Gentile law firm in Miami and Scott Edelsburg of Edelsburg Law in Aventura, demand compensation of $500 for each violation, for each injured party involved in the class. The amount demanded is the maximum allowed by the FTSA.

Jon Scott Goodwin, CEO of Goodwin Insurance Advisors, was reached by phone. Asked if he had received notice of the class action lawsuit against his firm, he replied, “I am not aware of the suit and I have no comment. I will wait and see if I am contacted about that.”

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