Medley v. DISH Network: the company kept calling after her lawyer said stop
A Florida woman went through bankruptcy, and her lawyer faxed DISH Network twice to say she was represented. DISH kept sending bills and placing prerecorded calls. A federal jury in Tampa found DISH violated the Florida Consumer Collection Practices Act and awarded $1,000 in statutory damages, $8,750 in actual damages and $225,000 in punitive damages, and in August 2023 the judge refused to cut the award.
A public record, not a client of this firm. Everything on this page comes from the court orders and the docket cited at the end. Usher Law Group did not represent anyone in this matter, we publish no results of our own, and nothing here predicts the outcome of any other case.
Linda Medley signed up for DISH satellite television in April 2013, in Kenneth City, Florida, near St. Petersburg. By then she had been struggling to pay her bills for years. She stopped watching in the summer of 2013. When she called to cancel, she could not afford the early termination fee, and DISH offered her its Pause program instead: the service suspended, for $5 a month.
In February 2014 she met with a bankruptcy lawyer and called DISH to say she was filing. On May 26, 2014 she filed a Chapter 7 petition and listed DISH as a creditor for $831.74. On August 26, 2014 the bankruptcy court entered her discharge.
Then the bills kept coming. Her lawyer faxed DISH on October 15, 2014, on firm letterhead, with her account number. The letter said the firm represented her with regard to her debts, including that account, and that any further contact would violate Florida Statutes § 559.72(18). The parties later stipulated what happened next: DISH sent billing notifications on five dates between October 2014 and February 2015, and placed six prerecorded calls to her cell phone between October 24, 2014 and January 16, 2015. Her lawyer faxed again on December 30.
At trial she testified that each email and each call made her heart race and left her shaky and scared. She had filed bankruptcy to get a fresh start, and the contacts made her feel it had not worked.
What the law says
The Florida Consumer Collection Practices Act has a rule the federal statute does not quite match. In the version the court applied, it began "no person shall," in collecting consumer debts, do any of a list of things; today it reads "a person may not." One item on the list is to communicate with the debtor if the person knows the debtor is represented by an attorney with respect to the debt and knows, or can readily find out, the attorney's name and address (Fla. Stat. § 559.72(18)). The current text has three exceptions: the attorney does not respond within 30 days, the attorney consents, or the debtor starts the communication.
"A person" is what matters here. The federal FDCPA reaches third-party collectors and debt buyers. A company collecting its own bill is generally outside it. The Florida statute reaches the company itself, which is why a satellite TV provider was on trial under a collection law.
The remedies are in § 559.77(2): actual damages, statutory damages of up to $1,000, punitive damages in the court's discretion, and costs and reasonable attorney's fees. The statute of limitations is two years (§ 559.77(4)).
What the courts did
Medley sued in state court in July 2016 under the FCCPA and the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act. DISH moved the case to federal court in Tampa, and in 2018 the district court granted DISH summary judgment on everything.
On May 1, 2020, the Eleventh Circuit split the case in two. It affirmed on the TCPA claim: Medley had agreed in her contract to be called at her number, and consent given as part of a bargained-for contract cannot be revoked by one party alone. But it reversed on the Florida claims. The court said DISH had tried to collect a debt it had no legal right to collect, because the debt had been discharged, and had contacted Medley directly after notice that she had a lawyer. It sent the case back to decide what DISH actually knew.
The case was tried for four days. The jury found for DISH on the claim that it tried to collect a debt it knew was not legitimate (§ 559.72(9)), and for Medley on the lawyer-contact claim (§ 559.72(18)).
Medley v. DISH Network
The jury also awarded $1,000 in statutory damages and $8,750 in actual damages for DISH's contacts after it knew she was represented. The court denied DISH's motions for judgment as a matter of law and to reduce the punitive award.
Source: Order, M.D. Fla. No. 8:16-cv-2534 (Aug. 25, 2023). A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
DISH argued the punitive award was grossly excessive next to the $8,750 in actual damages and should be cut to a ratio of one-to-one, or at most four-to-one. The court refused. It found DISH's conduct reprehensible on four grounds: Medley's distress showed up physically; DISH showed indifference, pointing to testimony that about 50,000 of its customers file bankruptcy each year and to a lack of FCCPA training and of any system for recording attorney representation; she was financially vulnerable; and the contacts were repeated. It called the verdict large enough to deter DISH and not the product of a runaway jury.
DISH appealed in September 2023. The court's docket shows a satisfaction of judgment filed on December 13, 2023.
What it means for you now
In Florida, once a creditor or collector knows you have a lawyer for a debt, it has to deal with the lawyer. That rule reaches the original company, not only collection agencies. The federal FDCPA has a parallel rule for debt collectors (15 U.S.C. § 1692c(a)(2)). The contact after you have a lawyer page covers both.
- Make the notice specific. Name the account. DISH argued its notice covered only the bankruptcy, not the later Pause charges. A letter tied to the account number narrows that argument.
- Keep proof it arrived. In Medley the fax number and dates were stipulated. A fax confirmation, a certified mail receipt, or an email reply does that work.
- Log every contact after the notice. Bills, emails and calls each count. The call log helps.
- Watch the clock. Two years under the FCCPA, one year under the FDCPA.
The FCCPA requires a company found liable to pay the consumer's reasonable attorney's fees and costs. The TCPA has no fee-shifting clause. Florida's rules are collected on our Florida page, and our New York and New Jersey pages cover the rules there.
The pages this story points to
Contact after you have a lawyer
The federal rule, the Florida rule, and what notice has to say.
Read →Florida law
The FCCPA, who it covers, and its two-year deadline.
Read →Robocalls and texts
The TCPA, consent, and when it can be taken back.
Read →Sources. Medley v. DISH Network, LLC, No. 18-13841 (11th Cir. May 1, 2020), opinion (govinfo); Order on cross-motions for summary judgment, No. 8:16-cv-2534 (M.D. Fla.), PDF; Order denying judgment as a matter of law and remittitur (M.D. Fla. Aug. 25, 2023), PDF; District court docket (notice of appeal, satisfaction of judgment); Fla. Stat. §§ 559.72, 559.77.
Common questions
DISH was not a debt collector. How could it be liable?
The Florida Consumer Collection Practices Act says a person, not just a collection agency, may not use the prohibited practices when collecting a consumer debt. DISH was collecting its own charges, and the jury applied the Florida statute to it. The federal FDCPA, by contrast, generally does not cover a creditor collecting its own debt.
Why did the TCPA claim fail?
Medley had agreed in her DISH contract to be called about her account. The Eleventh Circuit held that consent given as a term of a bargained-for contract cannot be taken back by one side alone, so her lawyer's fax revoking consent did not make the automated calls illegal under the TCPA. Consent given in other ways, such as on a credit application, can generally be revoked.
What should my lawyer's letter to a creditor say?
It should identify the account, say the lawyer represents you with respect to that debt, and give the lawyer's name and address. In Medley, DISH argued the fax covered only her bankruptcy and not the later charges. A letter that names the account and states the representation plainly leaves less room for that argument.
Tell us what they did.
One conversation with an attorney, in your language. We tell you which laws the collector or the credit bureau broke, which deadline runs first, and what to save this week. If it is not a case we can take, we say so and tell you where to go.
(718) 484-7510The FDCPA and the FCRA require a company found liable to pay the consumer’s reasonable attorney’s fees and costs. Our fee arrangement is confirmed in a written retainer before we begin. English, Russian and Spanish in-house; an interpreter for any other language.