Gather your records: what to collect for a TCPA claim
Updated 2026-11-03. Fill in on screen or on paper.
A TCPA demand letter makes claims about calls or texts your business made. Before you can respond, negotiate, or decide anything, you need your own record of those calls. This sheet lists every record that matters, where it usually lives, and why a lawyer will ask for it.
0 of 14 done. Saved in this browser only.
Where these records usually live
Record
Usual source
Ask for
Call detail records
Carrier portal, VoIP provider, dialer reporting tab
CSV export, full campaign date range, all outcomes
Text logs
SMS platform (delivery reports)
Per-number message history including opt-out keywords
Consent records
Lead form provider, CRM, landing page host, vendor
Form wording as published, timestamp, IP, page URL, named seller
DNC scrubs
Your telemarketing.donotcall.gov account or your scrub vendor
Download history and the version used for this campaign
Vendor contracts
Email, e-signature platform, accounts payable
Signed copy, schedules, any compliance addendum
What you are looking for
Three questions. First, did the listed calls happen as described? Match each number and date in the letter against your logs. Note any that do not match. Second, what did the whole campaign look like? Count the calls or texts to all numbers over the same period. That figure, not the letter's, is what a lawsuit would be about. Third, what can you prove about consent for each listed number? Not what the vendor said. What you can print.
Preserve first, organise second. Do not clean up records, merge files, or "tidy" a spreadsheet before you have saved an untouched copy. The original export with the original timestamps is the one that counts.
If the vendor has the records
Ask in writing, today, for a full export of the campaign data and the consent records for every number. Keep the request and the reply. A vendor who will not hand over records you are paying for has told you something about how the next conversation will go. Your contract may give you a right to the data. Check it.
If the records do not exist
Write down what you looked for, where, and that it was not there. A gap is a fact your lawyer needs. It changes what you can argue and it goes straight onto the compliance fix list. Do not reconstruct records from memory and present them as contemporaneous. That is the one thing that makes a bad position worse.
Short answers
How far back do I need to pull call records?
The federal limitations period for TCPA claims is four years under 28 U.S.C. § 1658. Pull the full campaign period in the letter first, then anything else in the last four years that used the same list, script or vendor.
The letter lists calls my logs do not show. What does that mean?
It could mean a vendor made them on your behalf, a different caller ID was used, or the letter is wrong. Note every mismatch with your evidence. Do not assume the letter is wrong because your own logs are incomplete.
What counts as a consent record?
For marketing calls or texts to a mobile phone using an autodialer or prerecorded voice, 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(f) requires prior express written consent: a signed agreement (electronic signatures count) that clearly authorises the specific seller to call that number using those methods. You need the actual form wording and the timestamp for each number.
Does a vendor contract protect me from the claim?
The claimant can pursue the business the calls were made for. A contract with the vendor may give you a right to recover from them afterwards, which is a separate matter. Gather it, but do not treat it as a defence.