To sue for harassing phone calls, you file a civil complaint under the federal statute the caller violated: the Telephone Consumer Protection Act for robocalls and robotexts made without your consent, or the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act for abusive conduct by third-party debt collectors. The TCPA pays $500 per illegal call or text, trebled to $1,500 if the violation was willful. The FDCPA pays up to $1,000 in statutory damages per lawsuit plus any actual damages, and requires the losing collector to pay your attorney’s fees. You do not have to prove you lost money.
Figure Out Which Law the Caller Broke
Your claim depends on who is calling and how. The two federal statutes cover different behavior, and you may have claims under both.
Robocalls, Robotexts, and Prerecorded Messages
The TCPA prohibits calls to your cell phone that use an automated dialing system or a prerecorded voice unless you gave prior express consent.1eCFR. 47 CFR Part 64 Subpart L – Restrictions on Telemarketing, Telephone Solicitation, and Facsimile Advertising The same rule covers robotexts. If you once gave consent and now want the calls to stop, you can revoke it through any reasonable method: replying “stop” to a text, telling the caller on the phone, or sending an email. The caller then has ten business days to honor the request, and no company can force you to use a specific opt-out channel.2Federal Communications Commission. FCC Declaratory Ruling on Consent Revocation Anything that comes through after that window is a fresh violation you can sue over.
Debt Collector Calls
The FDCPA applies to third-party debt collectors, meaning companies whose main business is collecting debts owed to someone else.3eCFR. 12 CFR 1006.2 – Definitions It does not apply to the original creditor collecting its own debt under its own name. That distinction matters: calls from your own bank about your own account generally fall outside the FDCPA.
When the FDCPA does apply, it restricts when and how a collector can reach you:
- Calls before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. in your local time zone are presumed inconvenient and violate the statute unless you agreed to a different time.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1692c – Communication in Connection With Debt Collection
- A collector cannot call you at work if it knows or should know your employer forbids it.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1692c – Communication in Connection With Debt Collection
- More than seven calls in seven consecutive days about the same debt, or a call within seven days after actually speaking with you about it, is presumed to be harassment.5eCFR. 12 CFR 1006.14 – Harassing, Oppressive, or Abusive Conduct
- Once you tell the collector in writing to stop contacting you, it must stop, with narrow exceptions like a notice that it is ending collection or filing suit.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1692c – Communication in Connection With Debt Collection
The statute also bans threats of violence, obscene language, calls placed with intent to annoy, and calls where the caller does not meaningfully identify itself.6GovInfo. 15 USC 1692d – Harassment or Abuse A collector cannot falsely threaten arrest or claim it will seize property unless that action is both lawful and something it actually intends to do.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1692e – False or Misleading Representations
Build the Evidence Before You File
Harassment cases turn on documentation. Courts want to see a pattern, and yours needs to show one clearly.
Keep a Call Log
Write down every unwanted call: date, exact time, the number on caller ID, the name and company of whoever spoke, and what was said. Capture threats, false claims, and profanity verbatim if you can. If the caller refused to identify itself, note that; failing to meaningfully disclose identity is itself an FDCPA violation.6GovInfo. 15 USC 1692d – Harassment or Abuse Then request your official phone records from your carrier. Carrier records independently verify call times, durations, and originating numbers that a defendant cannot easily dispute.
Check Your State’s Recording Law Before You Record
A recording of a collector making threats or ignoring your cease request is powerful evidence. State wiretapping laws control whether you can legally make one. Roughly a dozen states require every party on the call to consent. The rest allow recording when just one party, meaning you, consents. Confirm your state’s rule before you press record. An illegal recording is not admissible and can create liability for you.
Save the Validation Notice, or Note That It Never Came
A debt collector must send you a written validation notice within five days of first contact, stating the amount owed, the creditor’s name, and your right to dispute the debt within thirty days.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1692g – Validation of Debts No notice is a separate violation. If you disputed the debt in writing within thirty days, the collector had to stop collection until it verified the debt, and any calls during that pause become additional violations.
Put Your Stop Request in Writing
For debt collectors, the FDCPA requires a written cease-communication request. Send a short letter by certified mail with return receipt requested, telling the collector to stop all phone communication. Keep the letter and the postal receipt. Every call after the collector receives it is a violation you can point to in court.
TCPA consent revocation does not have to be in writing, but written proof strengthens your case. If you told a robocaller “stop” on the phone or by text, follow up with an email or letter so the record is unambiguous.
Watch the Filing Deadlines
FDCPA claims must be filed within one year of the date the violation occurred, not one year from when you discovered it.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1692k – Civil Liability The clock runs separately on each call, so older calls in a long harassment pattern can be time-barred while recent ones survive.
The TCPA does not state its own limitations period. Federal courts generally apply a four-year catch-all period for federal statutes, though the exact deadline can vary with where you file. Do not wait to test it. Start the process well before the deadline could become a question.
Pick a Court and File the Complaint
State Court, Federal Court, or Small Claims
The TCPA’s private right of action directs claims to “an appropriate court of that State,” so state court is the standard venue.10Federal Communications Commission. Telephone Consumer Protection Act 47 USC 227 FDCPA claims can be filed in any federal district court regardless of amount, or in any state court with jurisdiction.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1692k – Civil Liability
Small claims court is often the fastest route for a handful of TCPA violations. State jurisdictional limits range from $2,500 to $25,000, and the procedures are simpler. For dozens or hundreds of calls, you will want a lawyer and a court with no damages cap.
Drafting, Filing, and Serving
Your lawsuit starts with a complaint that identifies you, names the defendant, describes what they did, cites the statutes they violated, and states the damages you want. Be specific. Dates, phone numbers, what was said, and which provision each call violated. File it with the court clerk to open the case.
Then you must formally deliver a copy to the defendant through service of process. You usually cannot mail it yourself. Most courts require a professional process server, the sheriff’s office, or another authorized method, and a botched service can delay or dismiss the case.
After service, the defendant typically has 20 to 30 days to file an answer admitting or denying your allegations. Most TCPA and FDCPA cases settle before trial because statutory damages are clear and the evidence is usually straightforward.
What You Can Recover
TCPA: Per-Call Damages That Scale Fast
The TCPA pays $500 for each call or text that violates the statute. If the court finds the caller acted willfully or knowingly, it can triple that to $1,500 per violation.10Federal Communications Commission. Telephone Consumer Protection Act 47 USC 227 Fifty illegal robocalls at $500 each is $25,000, or $75,000 at the trebled rate. You can also request an injunction ordering the calls to stop. No financial-harm proof required.
FDCPA: A Capped Award Plus Fee-Shifting
The FDCPA allows actual damages for harm the violations caused, such as lost wages or the cost of treating anxiety, plus up to $1,000 in statutory damages per lawsuit, not per violation. The real leverage is the fee-shifting: the court must award reasonable attorney’s fees and court costs to a winning plaintiff.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1692k – Civil Liability That is why consumer attorneys take these cases on contingency. If you win, the collector pays their bill.
Class Actions When You Are Not the Only Target
If the same caller hit many people, a class action may be an option. FDCPA class damages are capped at the lesser of $500,000 or one percent of the collector’s net worth.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1692k – Civil Liability TCPA class actions have no statutory cap, which is why large robocall operations face heavy exposure.
Reach the Company Behind the Calls
The telemarketing firm dialing your number may be a shell with no assets. The seller that hired it usually is not. The FCC has held that sellers can be vicariously liable for a telemarketer’s TCPA violations under agency principles, particularly when the seller supplied customer lists, approved scripts, provided branding, or knew about the violations and did nothing.11Federal Communications Commission. Reassigned Numbers Database
To reach the seller, save voicemails that mention a product or company name, note websites or callback numbers referenced during the call, and hold onto any texts or emails from the same campaign. The tighter you can tie the calls to a named seller, the stronger the vicarious liability claim.
What About Spoofed Numbers and the Do Not Call List
Two adjacent tools do not, by themselves, get you into court. Registering at donotcall.gov makes future unsolicited sales calls actionable after 31 days,12Federal Trade Commission. National Do Not Call Registry and complaints to the FTC and FCC create a paper trail, but neither agency will litigate your individual case. Callers who fake caller ID are harder to sue because you need a named defendant; the Truth in Caller ID Act’s penalties of up to $10,000 per violation run through the FCC rather than a private lawsuit.13Federal Communications Commission. Caller ID Spoofing Carrier call detail records can still reveal the originating provider even when the displayed number is fake, and an experienced TCPA attorney can subpoena intermediary carriers and VoIP providers to trace the chain back to the real caller.