In Joseph v. TrueBlue, Inc., the named plaintiff brought a Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) class action against the workforce staffing company for its alleged text messaging advertisements. TrueBlue recently agreed to a $5 million settlement to end the case.
According to the amended class action complaint, TrueBlue sent text message “Job Alert” advertisements to Daniel Joseph and others. Because of the volume of text messages he was receiving, Joseph decided to stop the text messages and texted the word “Stop” to TrueBlue. Joseph received notice that “You have unsubscribed from [TrueBlue’s] job alerts. You will receive no more messages.” However, thereafter TrueBlue allegedly continued to send text messages to Joseph.
The case was litigated for nearly two years before the parties reached a settlement. In September 2015, the Court granted preliminary approval of the parties’ class action settlement agreement. The agreement provides for a $5 million settlement fund for “all 1,948 individuals identified in [TrueBlue’s] records that were sent a job alert text message after a request to unsubscribe to their cellular telephone from the same system that sent Plaintiff a job alert text message after his unsubscribe requests.” TrueBlue also agreed to change its business practice to stop making or causing to be made automated calls and texts after stop requests.
On November 21, Joseph filed a motion for attorneys’ fees, costs, and a service award. Specifically, he seeks more than $1.6 million in attorneys’ fees (or 33% of the common fund), over $14,000 in litigation expenses, and $10,000 as an incentive award.
A final approval hearing is set for February 6, 2017.