Firm Challenges Roaming Fees
by July 7, 2003 12:00 am 76 views
Three of the four known class-action lawsuits filed in Arkansas by the Wilkes & McHugh law firm challenge billing and marketing for long-distance phone service by wireless phone companies.
On March 20, Wilkes & McHugh filed a complaint against Alltel Communications Inc., the wireless subsidiary of Alltel Corp. of Little Rock, in Phillips County Circuit Court on behalf of four Phillips County residents and “all others similarly situated.”
On the same day, the firm filed a similar class-action case in the same court against Cingular Wireless LLC, the cell phone joint venture of SBC Communications Inc. of San Antonio and BellSouth Corp. of Atlanta. The plaintiff is a Phillips County woman “and all others similarly situated.”
On March 23, a complaint was filed in Pulaski County Circuit Court against AT&T Wireless of Redmond, Wash. The only named plaintiff in the AT&T suit is a Pulaski County woman.
The lawsuits all accuse the phone companies of misleading advertising that led customers to believe incorrectly that virtually all of their long-distance calls would be included in a flat monthly fee and that their service areas are broader than they really are.
While similar, the lawsuits complain of specific problems with the “fine print” of the companies’ service agreements, which the plaintiffs charge are written to the complete advantage of the company and leave the customer with an unfair burden of objecting to unilateral changes in the contracts.
The three phone companies, all represented by different lawyers, have attempted to have the cases moved to U.S. District Court in Little Rock. All three support the move by citing the Federal Communications Act, which states that no state or local government has authority to regulate telephone or mobile service.
To read more about Wilkes & McHugh, clickhere.