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Oregon judge blocks class action over auto insurer phone-harassment suits
The court also ordered the plaintiff and his law firm to preserve all devices and documents tied to the telemarketing claims while the insurer argues the cases were built on manufactured wrong-number complaints.
A federal judge in Oregon has frozen a cluster of Telephone Consumer Protection Act lawsuits brought by serial telephone-harassment plaintiff Chet Michael Wilson against Freeway Insurance Services of America, denying him class certification while allowing the dispute to proceed.
In the case, U.S. District Judge Michael J. McShane said he was concerned about how the litigation was advancing and questioned whether criminal fraud was involved. The judge also ordered Wilson and the Washington, D.C. Heidarpour Law Firm to preserve every device and document connected to the telemarketing claims.
Freeway, according to court filings, is seeking to characterize Wilson's complaints as an extortion scheme, arguing the wrong-number allegations were manufactured around an auto-quote request submitted using Wilson's phone number. Freeway hired a former FBI agent to investigate a name Wilson linked to the submission and said the search did not find the person.
Freeway told the court it has spent roughly $500,000 defending itself in Wilson-related matters, and court records reviewed in the case show Wilson has filed at least 14 cases in the District of Oregon. The docket also indicates Wilson has filed more than 80 TCPA suits nationally since 2024, with other legal reporting putting the figure closer to 100.