Legal Call Center Compliance

What you need to know

Legal call center compliance refers to the requirements a legal call center must abide by in order to protect its partners and consumers. Legal call center compliance requires careful attention to state and national regulations, as well as maintaining effective internal standards and protocols.

Crucial regulation

What is call center compliance and why is it so important?

Call center compliance is the adherence to regulations set by governing bodies, such as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Adhering to applicable laws and regulations is crucial to operating a successful call center. Noncompliance to regulations can result in strict penalties including massive fines.

The Laws

Specific Compliance Laws that Must Be Followed by Call Centers

Legal call centers must adhere to a series of specific regulations, which include:

TCPA

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), is a federal law that was enacted in 1991 to regulate the use of telephone communication for commercial purposes. The TCPA establishes several regulations for businesses that engage in telemarketing, including:

Requirements for obtaining consent before placing telemarketing calls
Restrictions on the use of automatic dialing systems
Limitations on the use of pre-recorded messages

The law also provides consumers with certain rights, such as the right to request that telemarketers stop calling them. Consumers also have the right to sue telemarketers who violate the TCPA’s regulations. The TCPA is governed by the FCC, and violations can carry fines of up to $40,000 per violation.

DNC

The DNC registry was created in response to a three-year review of the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) and the FTC’s experience with calls and consumers. After reviewing more than 64,000 submissions to the FTC, the DNC registry was created. The purpose of the DNC registry is to give consumers more control over who calls them and for what purpose. DNC regulations include the following:

Telemarketers must disclose who they are and who they represent
Telemarketers can only contact consumers during certain times
Telemarketers are prohibited from using deceptive practices
Telemarketers are prohibited from contacting consumers on the DNC registry

Telemarketers, or companies using telemarketing tactics, who violate DNC registry regulations are subject to fines and penalties.

HIPAA

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requires call centers to protect the protected health information (PHI) of consumers. Under HIPAA guidelines, call centers must take the following steps to protect sensitive medical information:

Implement administrative, physical and technical safeguards
Conduct risk assessments
Train employees on HIPAA policies
Establish security policies
Establish a plan for responding to data breaches

Call center should also be able to provide adequate safeguards if the client requests their information to be protected.

Standards

Standards Your Call Center Should Adhere to

Not all call center standards are as widely-debated as the TCPA. Some standards fall within the TCPA are simple ethical guidelines that protect call centers, their partners, and consumers.

At LCC, we take pride in adhering to all applicable legal call center standards. We make it a point to train and oversee our staff in regards to the following:

Recorded Conversation Consent

Recording calls is an important part of many businesses, including call centers. By recording call, call centers can monitor their service and identify ways to improve. Recording calls is also a great way for call center supervisors to ensure that agents are compliant with state and federal laws and regulations.

However, before a call can be recorded, a legal call center must obtain consent from the consumer. Most every state in the U.S. requires that both parties to a call be aware that the call is being recorded. Failing to notify consumers that the call is being recorded is a violation of the TCPA.

Do Not Call (DNC) Registry

The Do Not Call (DNC) registry was created as a way for consumers to have more control over the calls they receive. Consumers enter their phone number by telephone or online and they are added to a national list. Businesses, telemarketers and call centers are prohibited from contacting numbers on the DNC registry. Violating the DNC registry can result in tens of thousands of dollars in fines.

At LCC, we take the DNC registry a step further. Not only do we use the list to ensure we do not contact consumers on it, but we also maintain an internal DNC list. These lists are circulated to our agents, and are updated routinely. This ensures that we abide by DNC registry and FTC guidelines.

HIPAA Training

Legal call centers will often speak with consumers about health information. It is important that all such conversations are handled in the appropriate way. At LCC, not only is our company HIPAA certified compliant, but we provide our agents with individual HIPAA training and certification.

Call Center Security

For legal call centers, having a general security plan in place is important. A well drafted and enforced security policy can help reduce the chances of noncompliance. Some things call centers can do to create a secure environment include:

Compliance Checklist: Maintain a compliance checklist with routinely updated information about call center requirements.
Data Security Policy: Create and enforce a data security policy for your call center. Track employees who handle sensitive information, and enforce your policy standards.
Agent Training: Provide routine training for all agents to keep them up-to-date on current policies.

Call Quality Assurance and Ongoing Training

Quality assurance is an important driver for consistency across all channels of a call center. Some call centers have an established quality assurance department, while others have an individual who is in charge of managing quality assurance and any concerns that arise.

There are many benefits to having a quality assurance system in place, such as:

Ability to track and record compliance
Ability to review and ensure compliance
Allow supervisors to audit calls and provide feedback
Provide coaching opportunities for agents
Quickly address noncompliance or data threats

Ideally, all call center staff will play a role in quality assurance. This type of dynamic is built by leaders and is passed down to staff through training, feedback, and supervision.

How Legal Conversion Center Maintains Compliance

At Legal Conversion Center, we take call center compliance seriously. We have built our company and reputation to the standard it is by maintaining strict compliance and a commitment to the best interests of our partners.

LCC understands that lawyers and law firms need a partner that is reputable and trustworthy. That’s why we have gone the extra mile to ensure that all of our services are built around compliance with applicable laws and regulations.

Let’s talk about how Legal Conversion Center can help your firm grow.

Legal Call Center Compliance