Ernie, seems to me this was about more than one lousy guy with a pickup. He had 5 constantly busy phone lines using autodialers, fer chrissakes, so while he wasn't MCI, we're still talking oodles of daily annoyance.

Also, I think the larger purpose of the page was to educate others about the law and how easy it is to bring a claim. It certainly greases the skids for other foaks to sue MCI or any other major scumsuckers.

Sounds like a sweet legal hack. Sounds, in fact, like my future part-time job: harvesting people pissed off at telemarketers, take 10%, hire one of my lawyer friends, everybody makes a little money...
and you feel like you've contributed to something, at the end of the day.

Imagine posting up a notice on some college bulletin board

"Have you been hassled by telemarketers? Would you like to make $200 and have sweet sweet revenge?"
Of course, the ultimate irony would be spamming voice-messages to advertise your services for ripping off voice-msg spammers.

ben

This story would have more "zing" if we were talking about MCI or some other Big Company. As much as I dislike telemarketers, this story left me saying "Yay, that lawyer got $500 from a guy with two lawnmowers in the back of a pickup."

I've discovered that a great way to confuse telemarketers is to have a really short message on my answering machine--ie "Hi, leave a message". Their automated system thinks a response that short is a real person so they pick up and start talking to my answering machine and get confused when there isn't anyone there.

I love this bit at the end:

The Small Claims process in D.C. – at least what I saw of it – was so painless as to be dangerously addictive. While the decor in the clerk's office leaves a lot to be desired, the staff were consistently helpful and professional during my phone calls and in-person visits, and you can’t beat the results if your case has merit.