BILLY HOWARD

Billy Howard has been fortunate to work with some of the greatest legal minds of our time. He is a true Florida boy, born in Miami and raised in Winter Haven. Mr. Howard loves fighting the “little guy” against corrupt corporations.

Mr. Howard’s career journey began in the 1980’s working in his father’s law firm and assisting in Bob Graham (one of Florida’s greatest public servants) in his successful campaign for Florida’s Governor. Mr. Howard was taught at an early age that you should vote for the person who is trying to “do the right thing” not just because of someone’s party. He founded “Gators for Graham” at the University of Florida and in his Senior year worked as a Legislative Assistant to then Senator Bob Graham in Washington D.C., Mr. Howard has first-hand knowledge of how political leaders can shape public policy and protect people.

In 1992, Mr. Howard’s first year in law school, he worked for one of Florida’s premier plaintiff’s law firms, Lytal & Reiter. He also had the opportunity to work for Cooney Halizer, a very well-respected defense firm. Working for a defense firm and a plaintiff’s firm at the beginning of his career gave him an early understanding how the personal injury game was played and won.

Mr. Howard had the honor of interning with the Honorable Edward Rodgers, Palm Beach County’s first black prosecutor, its first black judge and its first black chief judge. Judge Rodgers was a civil rights pioneer and famously said, “I look forward to the day when we stop noticing when a black person is the first black in whatever appointment or profession.” In Mr. Howard’s last year in law school, he was approved by the Florida Supreme Court as a Certified Legal Intern and prosecuted numerous cases for the West Palm Beach State Attorney’s Office, and actually tried the first jury trial in the new Palm Beach County court house to a guilty verdict. Mr. Howard was interviewed that day by the local news concerning his trial victory, the first of hundreds of interviews to come.

Upon graduation from law school, Mr. Howard opened his own practice, and obtained a million dollar verdict in a complex civil theft bench trial. He worked as a sole practitioner in Fort Lauderdale, focusing mostly on personal injury and fighting insurance companies.

When Mr. Howard moved to Tampa, he worked for Nationwide Insurance Company briefly. While working for Nationwide, he went to trial numerous times and most importantly, he learned the inter-workings of insurance companies and how to beat them from the inside out.

In 2002, Mr. Howard became a managing partner at the law firm of Morgan & Morgan, America’s largest personal injury law firm. He not only handled personal injury cases and insurance dispute but also founded their Consumer Protection Department that focused on “robocalls,” collection harassment and helping people fix their credit. He represented people in almost every state in the country and with the help of his friend and partner John Morgan, grew the Consumer Protection Department into the largest one in the country, helping a wide-range of people from those who have suffered identity theft to debtors that were the target of unscrupulous and abusive debt collection behavior. He brought his trial skills to the debt collection arena and has successfully tried and settled hundreds of “collection harassment” cases.

Mr. Howard obtained a punitive damage jury verdict against a national debt collector, one of the few such awards ever in the country. Mr. Howard has the largest debt collection verdict and has repeatedly gone to trial and arbitrations against these mega-banks and beat them every single time.

Based upon his success, Mr. Howard has become a recognized national figure and has been interviewed most likely more than any attorney ever on these consumer issues. Mr. Howard is a nationally recognized expert in the field of consumer rights and was called upon to testify in front of a Congressional Banking Committee about the banking industry’s attempt to exempt themselves from Florida’s consumer protection laws. He has successfully defended the constitutionality of Florida’s Consumer Collection Practices Act. He was also asked to testify in Washington D.C. by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) concerning his expertise and experience fighting abusive debt collectors.

Mr. Howard has an intense passion for helping people hold debt collectors and banks responsible for their egregious conduct and was one of the first attorneys in the country to sue for unwanted “robocalls.” He is committed to making sure that banks and debt collectors do not get away with their abusive techniques that often devastate families.

While at Morgan & Morgan, Mr. Howard went to trial with some of the most talented lawyers in the country and was part of trial teams that received over 10 million dollars numerous times in personal injury, including one medical malpractice jury verdict for over 26 million.

In 2016, Mr. Howard founded The Consumer Protection Firm, a law firm with dedicated to helping people with a variety of legal problems from robocalls to car crashes. Currently, The Consumer Protection Firm is spear-heading the class action litigation against landlords throughout Florida that are profiting off the COVID-19 pandemic and refusing to give families a partial refund like all the State Universities did. Additionally, The Consumer Protection Firm is involved in local and nation-wide data breach class action as this is one of our country’s biggest problems for consumers.

The Consumer Protection Firm is a powerhouse boutique law firm that has had incredible success protecting consumers around the country and in Tampa Bay.

In the local Tampa Bay community, Mr. Howard attends Hyde Park United Methodist Church, where he began teaching youth classes, had a leadership role in the Greeting Ministry and co-founded the very popular ministry known as “Running to Make God’s Love Real.”

Mr. Howard has more published opinions in the area of consumer protection law than any lawyer in Florida including:

McCaskill v. Navient and Student Assistance Corporation, 2016. Order defendants to pay $363,500 on a summary Judgement for robo-calling 727 times without “express consent.”
Swaney v. Regions, 2016. Summary judgement granted for Plaintiff and finding their system is a “robo-dialer” and to believe Defendant’s position that their system is not a robo-dialer but still texts over 19 million per month ” would require the suspension of reason.”
Page vs. Regions Bank, 2012 WL 6913593 (N.D. Ala.). This first case in the 11th Circuit to find the “called party” had standing to bring a TCPA lawsuit.
Kathy Clements v. DSM Supply LLC, 2014 WL 560561 (M.D. Fla. 2014). Lead counsel default judgment in which, after notice of incorrect calls was made, each subsequent call was considered “willful and knowing” and thus worth $1,500.00.
Gambon v. R & F Enterprises, Inc., 2015 WL 64561. Lead counsel default judgment in which, after notice of incorrect calls was made, each subsequent call was considered “willful and knowing” and thus worth $1,500.00.
Coniglio v. Bank of America, N.A., 2014 WL 5366248 (M.D. Fla. 2014). Default Judgment awarded totaling $1,051,000.00 which found each call after verbal revocation was “willful and knowing” and thus worth $1,500.00.
Desmond vs. HSBC Card Services, Inc., WL 2436582 (M.D. Fla. 2009). Motion to amend for Punitive damages granted concerning almost one-thousand phone calls to the plaintiff, although he did not owe the money.
Green Tree vs. McLeod, 15 So. 3d 682 (Fla. 2d DCA 2009). Lead counsel in case considered to be one of the seminal appellate opinions on waiver of arbitration.
Strominger vs. Amsouth Bank, 991 So. 2d 1030 (Fla. 2d DCA 2008). Lead counsel in case involving banks waiver of arbitration.
Laufman vs. Phillips & Burns, Inc., WL 190604 (M.D. Fla. 2008). Motion to Allow Punitive Damages granted in case alleging debt collector threatened daughter with the arrest of her father and to take away her mobile home.
Jones v. Bank of America, Florida Circuit Court 2012. Motion to Allow Punitive Damages granted in a case alleging the bank was falsely reporting information on client’s credit and repeatedly called her for a debt she was not responsible for.
Nugent v. Wolpoff and Abramson, Florida Circuit Court 2010. Motion to Amend for Punitive Damages granted in a case alleging deceptive and corrupt arbitration scheme, abusinve debt collection and false credit reporting.
Lacen v. Wells Fargo, Florida Circuit Court 2008. Motion to Allow Punitive Damages granted in a case alleging a bankruptcy was being falsely reported on client’s credit report.
Lamboi v. Van Ru Corporation, Florida Circuit Court 2007. Motion to Allow Punitive Damages granted in a case alleging debt collector called the client the “N-Word.”

BILLY HOWARD

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