CHICAGO, Oct. 24, 2018 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Today, Florida voter Joseph Stephenson filed a class action lawsuit in federal court against Republican gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis. The lawsuit alleges that DeSantis's campaign violated the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act by sending mass text messages to potential voters, including Stephenson, without their permission.
Stephenson has never had any involvement with the DeSantis campaign, yet this month he received two text messages encouraging him to vote for the Republican candidate. Both text messages included links to DeSantis's campaign website and the second text message stated it was paid for by "Ron DeSantis, Republican, for governor."
Stephenson called back the phone numbers from which the text messages were sent. In first instance, he received a message saying it was not a working number. In the second instance, he received an automated recording indicating he should press 1. According to the lawsuit, these messages demonstrate that the "text messages were not sent from a cellular phone," but from "an automated telephone dialing system, also known as a 'robotext.'"
The lawsuit alleges potential class action claims on behalf of Florida residents who received text messages from DeSantis's campaign without their permission. The lawsuit alleges that each text message recipient is owed a minimum of $500.00 in damages per text message under federal law.
The case has been assigned to federal District Court Judge Charlene Honeywell. The case name is Joseph Stephenson v. Ron DeSantis, No. 8:18-cv-02606 (M.D. Fla.). The lawyers representing Stephenson are Douglas Werman and Zac Flowerree of Werman Salas P.C. and Gregg Shavitz of the Shavitz Law Group, P.A. http://www.flsalaw.com
SOURCE Werman Salas P.C.
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