Advertisement

DWP accused of illegal taping

Share
Times Staff Writer

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has been accused in a lawsuit of illegally recording phone calls without consent, which, if proved, could cost the agency thousands of dollars.

The class-action suit, filed Jan. 10 on behalf of Lucille Estes and uncounted other callers, contends that the agency violated California privacy law, which prohibits the recording of telephone calls without the consent of both parties.

On Aug. 23, 2006, a DWP employee who had had personal phone conversations with Estes, 76, of Granada Hills, told her he had learned they had been recorded, according to the suit. It is unclear how the employee, who was not identified in the suit, learned of the alleged recording.

Advertisement

Neal Fialkow, an attorney who filed the suit, said he sought and obtained a copy of a compact disc that holds recordings of Estes’ conversations and many others, indexed by date, time and office extension. Fialkow said he is looking into which departments of the agency might have recorded calls without permission.

“We estimate thousands and thousands of people are affected,” said Kenneth Lipton, another attorney working for Estes.

The state penal code allows callers who have been unknowingly recorded to claim $5,000 in damages.

Operators working for the agency’s call center confirmed that all calls to and from the agency are recorded “to protect us and to protect the customer.”

Attorneys for the DWP declined to discuss pending litigation, saying only that they had begun an investigation of the matter.

California law allows some exceptions to the two-party disclosure rule for telephone call recording.

Advertisement

Calls may be recorded without permission by law enforcement or as evidence of bribery, kidnapping or extortion.

Russ Heimerich, spokesman for the state Department of Consumer Affairs, said that because of logistical problems with vast phone-menu systems, it is not unheard of for call centers to neglect to tell callers they are being recorded.

“When that [set of caller choices] is fairly large,” he said, “it’s sometimes difficult to make sure that everything is updated and everything that needs to be said, is said.”

Fialkow, the attorney, said that customers hear a disclaimer if they call the DWP’s toll-free number, but that those who received a bill in the mail directing them to a 213 area code number for customer service or who received a call from the DWP might have been recorded without their knowledge.

“This is something, frankly, that you might expect the private sector to do,” Fialkow said. “But it’s kind of shocking to hear that your government is doing this on the local level.”

Harland Braun, a Century City-based criminal defense attorney who is not involved in the case, questioned why the DWP would selectively choose not to disclose that it was recording certain conversations.

Advertisement

“Sometimes negligence explains more than conspiracy,” he said. “I don’t know of any reason why Water and Power would do this, other than negligence.”

*

tony.barboza@latimes.com

Advertisement