Home / Worksheet
Worksheet
TCPA exposure worksheet: calls, rate, willfulness
How much could this cost? Statutory damages under the TCPA are $500 per call or text, and up to $1,500 each if a court finds the violation willful or knowing. Florida adds the same again under its own statute. Multiply by the number of calls. The sheet below does that, twice: once for the calls in the letter, and once for the whole campaign.
Federal figures: $500 per violation under 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(3) and § 227(c)(5), up to $1,500 where a court finds the violation willful or knowing. Florida: Fla. Stat. § 501.059, $500 per violation, up to $1,500 if willful. The sheet does not add attorney fees, your own defence cost, or the possibility of more than one violation per call. Arithmetic, not advice.
Why there are two totals
The letter lists the calls the sender can prove: the ones to the person who complained, or to the numbers the sender documented. That is the first total. It is the number the demand is based on.
The second total is the one a lawsuit is about. Once a case is filed, the other side can ask for your dialer records in discovery. Every call made with the same practice, to any number, inside the four-year limitations period, is on the table. If you called 2,000 numbers from a bought list without written consent, the exposure is 2,000 times the rate, not 3 times. This is why you pull the campaign export on the records sheet before you decide anything.
The willfulness toggle
Section 227(b)(3) and § 227(c)(5) let a court increase damages up to three times, to $1,500 per violation, where the defendant acted willfully or knowingly. Courts differ on exactly what that requires, but the facts that usually support it are plain: a call after the person said stop, a call after a demand letter arrived, a call to a number on the National Do Not Call Registry with no scrub ever run. If any of those describe your campaign, run the sheet with the toggle on and treat that as the realistic figure.
The Florida add-on
The Florida Telephone Solicitation Act, Fla. Stat. § 501.059, gives a Florida recipient a separate right of action with its own $500 per violation, up to $1,500 if willful. It covers the same call. A business that texted a Florida mobile number with an automated system and no written consent can face both statutes for one message. The toggle adds it. If the recipient is in another state, leave it off; several other states have their own statutes and your lawyer will know whether one applies.
Reading the demand against the total
If you entered the demand figure, the last tile shows it as a share of the statutory figure for the listed calls. Most demands come in below the $500 floor for the documented calls, and well below the trebled figure. That does not make the demand correct or the claim good. It tells you what the sender is pricing in: certainty for them, a release for you, no discovery for either side. The negotiation prep sheet is where you decide what that is worth to you.
Short answers
Is it $500 per call or $500 per person?
Per call or text. Each separate call or message that violates the statute is its own violation with its own $500, under 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(3) and § 227(c)(5). Four texts to one person is four violations.
Can one call really count twice?
A call can breach more than one provision, for example a prerecorded marketing call to a mobile number that is also on the Do Not Call Registry. Some courts allow recovery under each provision breached. A Florida recipient can also claim under the FTSA for the same call. The sheet models the Florida stack but not multiple federal provisions.
How does willfulness get decided?
By the court, on the facts. The statute lets a court award up to three times the statutory amount for a willful or knowing violation. Calls after a stop request or after written notice are the usual evidence. The sheet lets you see both figures; it does not decide which applies to you.
Does the four-year period mean the whole campaign is exposed?
Any call inside the four years before a lawsuit is filed can be claimed. 28 U.S.C. § 1658 sets the four-year period for federal claims without their own. Calls older than that are generally out of time, though the clock is measured from filing, not from the letter.
Why is the demand so much lower than the trebled total?
Because the sender is pricing certainty. A demand settled before filing avoids discovery, fees and risk for both sides. A lower figure now is the trade for a release that closes the matter. Whether the trade is a good one depends on your records, which is why the exposure sheet comes after the records sheet.