BUFFALO, N.Y. — A Wyoming County woman has been awarded more than $232,500 five years after filing a lawsuit over harassing robocalls.
The amount awarded to Kimberly Salerno is believed to be the largest judgement of its type ever recorded in Western New York.
While most are familiar with robocalls and many are indeed annoyed by them, Kenneth Hiller, the attorney who represented Salerno cautioned that, "everybody does not have a case."
Salerno, who lives in Arcade, filed the suit under the Federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
"People get robocalls from 50 different people," Hiller said. "We can't sue 50 different people for one call. What we're looking for is a case where somebody was called numerous times by one particular caller."
In the case of his client, she received 465 calls from the same bank over a six month period. Credit One had issued a credit card to her boyfriend, according to Hiller, who says his client didn't even owe any money, but her boyfriend did.
Salerno claimed that even when his debt was repaid, the calls kept coming, sometimes at a pace of two per hour.
"She had limited minutes on her phone, so this was real inconvenience for her," Hiller explained.
While the case took over five years to get to this point it may not be over, as the bank still could appeal the ruling.
2 On Your Side's Dave McKinley discussed with Salerno why she decided to file the lawsuit, why she persisted all these years in seeing it through, and how she hopes her efforts will help others. You can watch the full video below:
Hiller also explained more about why not everyone who receives robocalls has a potential court case on their hands. You can watch the full video below:
