How to Collect Money from Arizona Junk Faxers

by Richard Keyt

September 21, 2002

Nine Rules for Collecting Money from Junk Faxers

If you receive a junk fax, you can collect money from the sender, but your chances of success are greatly increased if you take certain actions. You must assume that the junk fax sender will make you pursue all legal avenues before you collect any money.

The following is a list of suggestions for Arizona residents who want to pursue junk fax claims against senders that are located in Arizona:

Rule Number 1. This is Rule Number 1 because it is the most important rule. If you want to successfully pursue violators of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (the "TCPA"), you must convince the sender that without exception you will file a lawsuit to collect damages for violations of the Act. If the sender does not believe you will follow your demand letter with a lawsuit, the chances are slim that the sender will meet your demand for payment.
Rule Number 2. This rule is a corollary to and just as important as Rule Number 1. If you file a lawsuit, you must pursue it to its conclusion and obtain a judgment against the sender. For more on Rules 1 & 2, see below.
Configure Your Fax Machine. Set your fax machine or fax software to always print the following information on the top or bottom of each incoming fax: (i) your name, (ii) the phone number of your fax machine, and (iii) the date and time you received the fax. This information is useful to prove that you received the fax on the date and at the time indicated.
Collect Multiple Faxes. Wait until you receive several faxes before taking any action. Junk faxers frequently send multiple faxes to the same number. If you wait three to six months or more, you may receive several faxes from the same sender, which gives you a right to seek more damages from the sender.
Minimum Number of Faxes. I prefer to have at least three faxes from the same in state sender before taking action. It takes the same amount of time to pursue one junk fax claim as it does three or six against the same sender so why not wait and until the damages are large enough to justify legal action.
Find the Sender. Research the sender of the fax using the services available on the internet. If you can find any web pages that indicate the name and address of the sender or that match the phone number(s) displayed on the junk faxes, print them and put them in a file with your junk faxes. Configure your browser to print the date and time that you print the web pages and the URL address of the web pages.
Select Your Defendant. Most junk faxes are actually sent by a fax blaster company that solicits people and businesses to send a single junk fax to large quantities of fax numbers (usually a minimum of 10,000) for a fixed price. Although both the business that hires the services of the fax blaster and the fax blaster company are jointly liable for each violation of the TCPA, I prefer to pursue only the individual or commercial business for damages.
Target Arizona Based Senders. Unless you have a lot of time and money, concentrate your collection efforts on senders who are located in your state. If you get a judgment against an out of state defendant, you must domesticate the judgment in a state in which the defendant has assets.
Pursue Claims All the Way. Rules 1 & 2 above are the most important tips to successfully obtaining money damages from senders of junk faxes. To satisfy Rules 1 & 2, you must do the following:

a. Assume the sender of the junk fax will ignore your demand for money. Do not send out a demand for payment for violating the TCPA unless you will devote the time and money necessary to file a lawsuit and pursue it to a settlement or a judgment.
b. If your demand letter does not result in a satisfactory settlement, file a lawsuit and prosecute it to a settlement or a judgment. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER drop your lawsuit unless there is a bona fide reason for doing so (such as the defendant proves it did not send the faxes). The filing fee for a complaint in Maricopa County Superior Court is $190 and you will probably pay at least $90 for a process server to serve the defendant with a summons and complaint. If your lawsuit is successful, you should be able to include the court costs ($280 in the above example) in the award of money in the judgment. Lawsuits in Arizona justice courts have a $40 filing fee, but the maximum amount sought from a single defendant my not exceed $10,000.
c. Assume that the defendant will not voluntarily pay the judgment when you win and that you will be forced to spend more time and money to collect the judgment. When you get your judgment, use the legal collection process to collect the judgment. Record the judgment in each county in Arizona in which the defendant has assets. Call the judgment debtor or its officers or directors for a debtors exam with a court reporter present to swear in the witness and record the witness' testimony about the nature and location of all assets of the judgment debtor. Use information collected from debtors' exams to have the sheriff seize assets of the judgment debtor and sell them at a public sale to pay the judgment.

Being a lawyer, I recommend, of course, that you not take any action against a potential sender of a junk fax without first consulting with an attorney licensed in the jurisdiction in which any litigation would be filed.

Plaintiff's Junk Fax Representation

I am available to represent plaintiffs against senders of junk faxes if the junk faxers are residents of or have offices in Arizona. If you: (i) have received junk faxes in Arizona, (ii) want me to consider representing you in taking legal action against one or more senders of junk faxes, and (iii) are willing to follow the nine step process set forth above, I may be able to represent you in taking legal action against the sender(s). I will give you a free no obligation review of your possible claims if you do the following:

Make copies of the junk faxes (at least three from each sender) and supporting documentation.
Mail copies of your junk faxes and supporting documentation to me, Richard Keyt, at KEYTLaw, 5025 North Central, PMB 467, Phoenix, Arizona 85012.

Make sure you send copies and not originals of any documents because I will not return anything to you.

Initial Review

I will try to review your claims and contact you within one week of receiving your documents. Because of the volume of inquiries I receive, if I do not contact you within one week of receiving your documents, you should assume that I am not able to represent you. The fact I cannot represent you does not mean that you do not have a valid junk fax claim. There are many reasons I may decline to represent you from conflicts of interest involving possible defendants to simply being too busy at the time to accept any new clients with junk fax claims.

Junk Fax Legal Fees

I sometimes take junk fax cases on a contingency basis, which means that I receive legal fees only if my client recovers money from a defendant. In general, my contingency fees are: (i) 33% of money collected if the matter is settled before filing a lawsuit, (ii) 40% of money collected if settled within twenty days after filing a lawsuit and serving the defendant, or (iii) 50% of money collected more than twenty days after serving the defendant. Clients also pay all costs of litigation in advance.

I will represent you only if after reviewing your faxes and supporting documents I send you an engagement letter that states the terms and conditions of my representation and how I will charge for legal fees and costs, you sign the letter, and return it to me with any required advance payment for costs.

About the Author

Richard Keyt, J.D., LL.M. (income taxation New York University Law School) is a business, real estate, transactions, contracts and estate planning attorney licensed to practice law in Arizona. He has formed over 1,500+ Arizona limited liability companies in the last few years because his low cost high quality LLC package is second to none and it only costs $599 for everything. Rick has practiced law in Arizona since 1980. Rick can be reached by telephone at 602-906-4953, ext. 101. Email at rickkeyt@keytlaw.com and fax at 602-297-6890. Rick's web site located at www.keytlaw.com had over 1,000,000 visitors in 2006 and 2007. Rick does not accept matters involving landlord / tenant disputes or litigation of any kind (other than tax lien foreclosures). Communicating with Richard Keyt via email or otherwise does not cause you to become a client or cause your communications to be confidential or subject to the attorney client privilege.

This page was last modified on July 22, 2007.

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