Detroit-headquartered lender Rocket Mortgage faces a class-action lawsuit for making repeated, unsolicited telephone calls, violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).
According to the suit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona on Tuesday, Kellie Deits – a resident of Arizona — received a call from a Rocket Mortgage representative in April who offered her mortgage products and services she had not requested nor inquired about.
Despite Deits’ request to not be contacted again, she alleges she received at least 27 more calls over the next 10 days from the same telephone number that initially contacted her, according to court documents.
The lawsuit seeks to represent a class that includes all residential telephone subscribers who received more than one telemarketing call within a 12-month period from Rocket Mortgage within five years after requesting the lender not call them.
Deits does not know the exact size of the class-action lawsuit, but she believes it to be, at minimum, in the hundreds, given the number of complaints Rocket has received and the nationwide scale of its business.
Rocket dismissed the suit as baseless.
“We care deeply about client service, as is evident by our 20 J.D. Power awards, numerous industry accolades and one of our ISMs, or founding principles, that insists we ‘Do The Right Thing.’ Despite this, plaintiff attorneys continue to litter the industry with baseless TCPA claims in hopes of securing quick and lucrative settlements,” the lender said in an e-mailed statement.
The barrier to file one of these cases is extremely low, but the end result is what really matters, Rocket noted.
“To date, not one single TCPA class has been certified against Rocket Mortgage. This is a clear indication of just how seriously we take our compliance obligations. There is no merit to this case, and we expect a quick and decisive ruling in our favor,” the lender said.
The complaint seeks up to $500 per violation of the TCPA for the National Do-Not-Call (DNC) Registry class and for Deits. The suit also seeks an injunction prohibiting Rocket from making telemarketing calls to residential phone numbers that do not wish to receive them.
Attorneys for Deits didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Rocket was hit with similar class-action lawsuits this year alleging Rocket violated the TCPA.
In June, a California resident sued Rocket, alleging that the lender made unsolicited calls and sent text messages to consumers who registered their phones on the DNC registry.
Rocket, in response, also dismissed the lawsuit as baseless. The case was dismissed in August by the U.S. District Court for Eastern California.
