FDCPA/FCRA Class Actions: Strategies and Pitfalls

Rob Sparks is a member of the Strauss Troy litigation practice group. He concentrates his practice in civil trial and appellate practice in the areas of consumer class actions, consumer fraud, investment fraud, insurance litigation, and insurance and brokerage matters.

Rob has represented people and businesses harmed by fraud and unscrupulous business practices in state and federal courts throughout the United States. He was named a Kentucky Super Lawyer? in 2008 and has been a member of the Kentucky Justice Association since 1995.

C. Kathryn Preston is a bankruptcy judge for the United States bankruptcy court, Southern District of Ohio. She was appointed to the bankruptcy bench on October 11, 2005, and her term will expire on October 10, 2019.

Preston served as law clerk to the Honorable Alexander L. Paskay who was, at that time, the Chief Bankruptcy Judge for the Middle District of Florida in Tampa, and later as law clerk to the Honorable Donald E. Calhoun, Jr., Bankruptcy Judge for the Southern District of Ohio. While not on the bench Preston joined the boutique law firm of Stichter & Riedel, P.A., where she practiced exclusively bankruptcy law, representing debtors, creditors and other parties in interest in of bankruptcy proceedings. After serving with Judge Calhoun's chambers, she joined The Huntington National Bank, where she practiced law in the areas of banking, business, and creditors' rights.

Judge Preston attended college at Stetson University in Deland, Florida and earned her J.D. at Stetson College of Law in St. Petersburg.

Matthew Sanning is the owner of Sanning & Sanning, PSC.

Christian A. Jenkins ("Chris") is the managing partner of Minnillo & Jenkins. With over 20 years of practice, Chris is an experienced litigator with broad knowledge of practice areas from labor and employment to consumer law to electronic privacy to general civil litigation and class action practice.

Chris has a passion for helping people, especially those victimized by the abuses of government, corporations and other institutions. He regularly represents unions and their members in disputes with government employers, groups of consumers subjected to scams and workers subjected to discrimination or denied overtime pay and minimum wages. As a result of his experience, Chris is a regular speaker on issues such as electronic privacy litigation, FMLA rights, and unlawful debt collection practices. Chris is counsel for the Cincinnati Organized and Dedicated Employees ("CODE"), which represents the City of Cincinnati's approximately 850 professional and managerial employees, the Lebanon City School Employees Association, and regular referral counsel for members of the Fraternal Order of Police.

Chris began his career with a national law firm in Milwaukee Wisconsin where he worked on litigation and labor and employment matters. Chris and his family have been part of the Cincinnati community since relocating in 1998 so that his wife could pursue a career as university professor. Since that time, Chris has worked on many significant, high-profile cases and become one of the area's leading civil attorneys. He recently concluded the $165 million settlement of class action claims brought by nearly 3,000 City employees against the Cincinnati Retirement System. He represented members of the Cincinnati Bengals Cheerleading squad, the "BenGals," in their successful claims for wages in a settlement recently approved by the federal District Court, and he represented fast food workers at Rally's and Checkers restaurants in several states in a case involving alleged minimum wage and overtime violations that settled for $500,000 plus attorney fees. Chris was also co-counsel in a recent case against Eagle Loan Company for making loans to thousands of Ohioans that allegedly exceeded the permissible interest rate. Some other examples of significant settlements include: Cincinnati Bell Wireless wrongful roaming charges ; former Peoples Bank of Northern Kentucky RICO claims; privacy claims against Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell for publishing social security numbers on the internet; and the largest settlement ever under the federal Privacy Act for claims against the Veterans Administration for losing the personal information of millions of veterans.