In August 2012, California resident Raquel Torres called Nutrisystem's toll-free 800 number and engaged in a “sensitive, private and confidential discussion” with one of the weight-loss company's employees, according to a federal lawsuit.
Torres felt so comfortable that she provided her social security number because Nutrisystem did not advise her that the Pennsylvania-based business records all of its calls.
Using two powerhouse Orange County law firms–Callahan & Blaine, and Scott J. Ferrell's Newport Trial Group, Torres sued, claiming that Nutrisystem violated California law banning the secret recording of telephone calls.
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But the case met a monumental opponent inside the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse in Santa Ana: U.S. District Court Judge Cormac J. Carney.
Carney refused in April to grant class-action status to the complaint for likely thousands of California residents who may have been secretly recorded by Nutrisystem.
In his ruling, the judge noted that the company had altered its policies to ensure all callers are informed they are being recorded.
Carney's decision, which equated to no potential for a meaningful, financial settlement, led this past week to Torres' lawyers asking to voluntarily dismissing the lawsuit.
On July 3, Carney formally closed the case.
According to court records, both sides will pay their own legal expenses.
Manatt, Phelps & Phillips successfully represented Nutrisystem.
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CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.