Jason Saggio and Jude Furr v. Medicredit, Inc.

Summary

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri denied Medicredit, Inc.’s motion to exclude Carla Peak’s expert testimony concerning class-action notice and identification of potential class members in a putative TCPA class action. The Court held that Peak was qualified, her reverse-lookup and notice methodology was reliable, and her opinions were relevant to ascertainability and manageability under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23. The Court relied in part on Eighth Circuit precedent recognizing call logs as objective criteria for identifying potential class members.

Holdings

1. Peak was qualified under Rule 702 to offer opinions concerning the processes and procedures for identifying potential class members and providing class notice, even though technical staff would perform the database searches.
2. Peak's proposed methodology was sufficiently reliable for admission because it had been widely accepted and implemented in class actions, including TCPA wrong-number cases, and was supported by the court's experience with similar notice processes.
3. Peak's testimony was relevant to assist the court in evaluating whether the proposed class was ascertainable and whether class treatment was manageable.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Carla Peak was qualified under Federal Rule of Evidence 702 to testify about procedures for identifying potential class members and providing class notice.
2. Whether Peak's proposed notice and reverse-look-up methodology was reliable under Rule 702 and Daubert.
3. Whether Peak's testimony was relevant to evaluating ascertainability and manageability under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23.

Disposition

other