Consumer Names Kept Confidential Despite Lawyers’ FOIA Ploy
The 7th Circuit decided today that the Federal Trade Commission does not have to give the names of consumers who have submitted complaints about “cramming” to lawyers who want potential clients for a class action suit. (The Lakin Law Firm, P.C. v. Federal Trade Commission (12/16/03 USCA 7th Cir.)). (Thanks to Marcia Oddi at the Indiana Law Blog for the pointer; as usual, Marcia has ably summarized the decision.)
“[t]his information is exempt from release under FOIA Exemption 6, 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(6), because individuals’ right to privacy outweighs the general public’s interest in seeing personal identifying information.”
“[p]ersonal privacy” does not include a consumer complaint. Personal privacy has to do with something that could cause injury to a person . . . There is no such threat here. This information has one, and only one use; to bring the companies that the consumers are complaining about to justice.
[ed. note: brings tears to my eyes]
The 7th Circuit decision affirms the FTC position, explaining “the FOIA’s central purpose is to guarantee ‘that the Government’s activities be opened to the sharp eye of public scrutiny, not that information about private citizens that happens to be in the warehouse of the Government be so disclosed.”“ The opening sentence of the opinion saids it all
“When people feel so strongly about something that they actually complain about it to a federal agency, they probably think their names and addresses will not be released to a firm of private lawyers seeking fuel to propel a possible class-action lawsuit.”
Update (12-30-03): Under his FedLawyerGuy guise, Jerry Lawson noted yesterday that “Personally, if I’d been victimized by a ripoff like this, I think I would probably appreciate being contacted by a law firm that understood and was interested in this type of case.” Jerry suggested that class actions might be the only solution for protecting consumers with “the federal government relaxing its oversight.” The feds might be less zealous in many consumer areas, but the FTC seems quite active on internet abuse and scams - like cramming - which is why the lawyers here wanted its crammming list. Here’s a Comment I left at Jerry’s post on this issue:
Your idea gave me slight pause when writing on this topic, Jerry, but then I thought about the slippery slope and resulting avalanche. I think a LOT of consumers would be very reluctant to complain to government regulators, if their names could be FOIA’d for any purpose — much less by (redundant) lawyers seeking plaintiffs. If chasing file cabinets for clients were allowed, there would be an enormous tidal wave of FOIA requests.
Not only do class action lawyers have other ways to find clients, but I bet consumers seeking to join a law suit could find one with very little online searching.
