For the second time in several months, two Charleston lawyers have sued the publisher of the Verizon Yellow Pages - this time because the phone book won't accept an advertisement from them.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - For the second time in several months, two Charleston lawyers have sued the publisher of the Verizon Yellow Pages - this time because the phone book won't accept an advertisement from them.
Richard Neely and Michael Callaghan filed their lawsuit Monday in Kanawha Circuit Court against Dallas-based Idearc Media Corp., which publishes Yellow Pages across the country for Verizon.
The lawsuit focuses on Idearc's recent refusal to accept a new advertisement that the firm Neely & Callaghan hoped to place in the book's 2009 edition.
"Obviously, this is in retaliation for our firm's having protested being charged for an advertisement that was completely incorrect," Neely wrote in a Jan. 12 letter to Thomas Goodwin, a Charleston lawyer representing Idearc Media.
That first lawsuit, filed last June, was over an incorrect ad for Neely & Callaghan in the 2008 Verizon Yellow Pages. When Neely and Callaghan complained that the advertisement was worthless and misleading, Idearc Media insisted the law firm still pay one-half the price of the advertisement, according to the suit.
When Neely and Callaghan refused to pay anything, Idearc Media threatened to report them to Allied Interstate. According to the suit, New York-based Allied was hired by Idearc to threaten to report customers to national credit-reporting agencies.
Allied Interstate is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit filed Monday.
In the first lawsuit, Neely and Callaghan sued Idearc for "defamation and breach of contract" and won an out-of-court settlement "for a substantial but confidential sum," according to the lawsuit filed Monday.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - For the second time in several months, two Charleston lawyers have sued the publisher of the Verizon Yellow Pages - this time because the phone book won't accept an advertisement from them.
Richard Neely and Michael Callaghan filed their lawsuit Monday in Kanawha Circuit Court against Dallas-based Idearc Media Corp., which publishes Yellow Pages across the country for Verizon.
The lawsuit focuses on Idearc's recent refusal to accept a new advertisement that the firm Neely & Callaghan hoped to place in the book's 2009 edition.
"Obviously, this is in retaliation for our firm's having protested being charged for an advertisement that was completely incorrect," Neely wrote in a Jan. 12 letter to Thomas Goodwin, a Charleston lawyer representing Idearc Media.
That first lawsuit, filed last June, was over an incorrect ad for Neely & Callaghan in the 2008 Verizon Yellow Pages. When Neely and Callaghan complained that the advertisement was worthless and misleading, Idearc Media insisted the law firm still pay one-half the price of the advertisement, according to the suit.
When Neely and Callaghan refused to pay anything, Idearc Media threatened to report them to Allied Interstate. According to the suit, New York-based Allied was hired by Idearc to threaten to report customers to national credit-reporting agencies.
Allied Interstate is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit filed Monday.
In the first lawsuit, Neely and Callaghan sued Idearc for "defamation and breach of contract" and won an out-of-court settlement "for a substantial but confidential sum," according to the lawsuit filed Monday.
The firm of Goodwin & Goodwin had no immediate comment on the suit. An Idearc Media spokeswoman said the company could not comment on pending litigation.
The majority of businesses buying ads in the Verizon Yellow Pages, the new lawsuit claims, are "small business persons such as general practice law firms, physicians, plumbers, electricians [and] contractors."
The suit also states that Allied "actually knows that in the great majority of contested collection matters, the customer who is being hounded by Idearc and Allied does not actually owe the money."
Verizon also enjoys "a quasi-monopoly position in the directory publishing business in that the majority of telephone users use the Verizon Yellow Pages in preference to competing publications," the lawsuit adds.
The new lawsuit mentions the possibility that thousands of other telephone directory customers may have suffered similar problems with Idearc and Allied.
Neely and Callaghan are reserving the right to refile the lawsuit as a class action suit that includes other dissatisfied customers in West Virginia and other states.
Reach Paul J. Nyden at pjny...@wvgazette.com
or 304-348-5164
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