Is it worth settling a TCPA demand letter?
Decide on three numbers: what the statute says the listed calls are worth, what the sender is asking, and what contesting costs. If the calls are yours and consent is thin, the demand is usually the lowest number with certainty, and settling it is the right call. If the calls are not yours or consent is documented, dispute with evidence.
Whether to settle a TCPA demand depends on three numbers you can work out in an afternoon: what the statute says the listed calls are worth, what the sender is asking, and what it costs to contest. The statute allows $500 per call or text and up to $1,500 if willful or knowing, under 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(3) and § 227(c)(5), with the Florida act adding the same again for Florida recipients. The demand is usually below that. The cost of contesting is paid by you, win or lose.
When settling is the right answer
The calls are in your logs. You cannot produce prior express written consent for the listed numbers in the form the FCC rules require. The number was on the National Do Not Call Registry, or the texts continued after a STOP. In that position the demand is the lowest number on the page and the only one that comes with certainty: a release, no filing, no docket, no discovery. Make sure the release names every listed call. A settlement is a release with no admission; see if I pay a TCPA demand, am I admitting guilt.
When disputing is the right answer
The calls were not made by or for your business, and your records show it. You hold consent in the right form for the listed numbers. The number was reassigned and you checked the FCC's Reassigned Numbers Database before dialing. Each of those needs evidence attached, not a denial. A dispute that comes with records is reviewed on the records. A dispute that is a denial changes nothing and uses up the deadline.
Usually: both
Go item by item. Dispute the rows the evidence removes. Resolve the rows that stand. Propose a figure that reflects the reduced count and ask for the release terms at the same time. That is what negotiating actually looks like.
What the decision is not about
Whether the sender is a law firm. Whether you feel the law is fair. Whether a forum says they never sue. Decide on the three numbers, before the deadline, in writing.
People also ask
Does settling admit liability?
A settlement is a release with no admission. A judgment is a public finding. See the question on whether paying admits guilt.
What should the release cover?
Every call and text in the letter, by number and date, and the period covered. Read it before paying and get it in writing.
Will settling invite more letters?
The release covers the listed numbers and period. Other recipients of the same campaign have their own claims regardless. The way to stop more letters is to fix the campaign.