Discovery Well Underway in Chicago TCPA Suit vs. Allstate, Says Status Report

Plaintiffs Joseph Bond and Tonia Jewell-Vines and defendant Allstate have exchanged written discovery requests and responses in their Telephone Consumer Protection Act dispute, said their joint status report Thursday (docket 1:23-cv-04385) in U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois in Chicago. The parties have held “multiple, productive conferences” over their discovery responses, and those discussions are ongoing, with “no disputes ripe” for the court’s consideration, said the report. Plaintiffs Bond and Jewell-Vines allege in their second amended TCPA class action that Allstate hires insurance agents across the country to conduct telemarketing on its behalf, and authorizes those insurance agents to place telemarketing calls, including prerecorded calls and calls to numbers listed on the national do not call list (see 2311070030). But Allstate contends that those thousands of Allstate agents are independent contractors, and the company can’t respond on behalf of all of them. The parties are conferring to select dates in May for the depositions of Bond and Jewell-Vines, said the joint status report. Allstate has served document subpoenas on AT&T and Verizon for the plaintiffs’ call records, it said. Under an agreement among the parties involving the redaction of certain call records, responsive documents were produced directly to the plaintiffs’ counsel, who will produce the redacted records to Allstate upon completion of the redaction process, it said. The plaintiffs have served document subpoenas on Onvoy, Peerless Network, HyperCube Networks, Telcast Networks and BCM One Cloud Communications seeking records relating to phone numbers that were allegedly used to place calls to Jewell-Vines, said the report. The plaintiffs have also served document subpoenas on two Allstate agents, it said. Those agents have produced certain documents in response to the subpoenas, “and the conferral process is ongoing with respect to the additional documents requested,” it said. The parties believe that further discovery is needed for them to continue earlier discussions about the possibility of a negotiated settlement, said the report.