Court grants partial summary judgment in TCPA involving preview dialer

In a breath of fresh air, the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida has granted the defendant’s motion for partial summary judgment in the case of Estrella v. LTD Financial Services, LP. The plaintiff in this case had alleged that the defendant used an ATDS to call the plaintiff’s cell phone, in violation of the TCPA. The defendant argued that they only dialed numbers manually using a “point and click function” and that there was no evidence to support the plaintiff’s allegations that an ATDS had been used. The court agreed, and in granting partial summary judgment found that the plaintiff “had failed to create a material dispute over whether Defendant placed calls to his cellular phone using an ATDS or artificial or prerecorded voice.”