Tomio Narita is a trial attorney who focuses his practice on defending class actions and high-risk cases. He has successfully defended hundreds of class actions, representative actions, and high exposure cases in state and federal courts in California and across the country.
Outside of California, Tomio has represented clients as lead counsel or co-counsel in multiple jurisdictions, including in Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, Hawaii, New Mexico, Washington, Colorado, Utah, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Texas, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, South Carolina and Florida.
Tomio also regularly handles appellate matters in federal and state courts, and has appeared in cases pending before the Second, Third, Sixth, Eighth, and Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the California Supreme Court, the Oregon Supreme Court, and the California Court of Appeals. Tomio has also co-authored amicus briefs filed on behalf of industry participants in the United States Supreme Court.
Clients from a wide spectrum of industries, including digital marketing companies, dialing platforms, online entertainment companies, real estate brokers, national banks, debt purchasing entities, mortgage servicers, finance companies, alternative lenders, retailers, medical corporations, law firms, lawyers, and physicians, have turned to Tomio for his litigation and trial experience.
Tomio frequently handles complex business disputes alleging fraud, negligence, invasion of privacy, breach of contract, intentional infliction of emotional distress, defamation, malicious prosecution, and various commercial torts.
Tomio has a particularly deep experience defending cases filed against members of the consumer financial services industry. For over three decades, he has defended creditors, national banks, debt buyers, finance companies, alternative lenders, collection agencies, collection law firms, and mortgage companies in cases arising under a wide range of consumer protection statutes, including the following:
- Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA)
- Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA)
- Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)
- Truth in Lending Act (TILA)
- California Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (California Civil Code § 1788)
- California Fair Debt Buying Practices Act
- California Consumer Legal Remedies Act
- California Unruh Act
- California Karnette Act
- California Unfair Competition Act (California Business & Professions Code § 17200)
In addition to his significant trial experience in jury and bench trials in courts throughout California, Tomio frequently handles arbitrations before JAMS and the American Arbitration Association.
Tomio is highly regarded in credit and collection litigation matters and has repeatedly been an invited speaker at Bar Association and collection industry events, discussing issues arising under the FDCPA, the FCRA, the TCPA, and related federal and state regulations.
He regularly conducts webinars and publishes articles on issues facing members of the credit and collection industry.
Representative Experience
Any result the lawyer or law firm may have achieved on behalf of clients in other matters does not necessarily indicate similar results can be obtained for other clients.
- Obtained defense verdict in jury trial in California federal district court action alleging that finance company charged unlawful interest rates in violation of California Finance Law
- Obtained order denying class certification in California federal district court action alleging that finance company charged improper fees in violation of California’s Karnette Act
- Defended “buy now pay later” provider in putative class action filed in Florida state court alleging that client sent emails in violation of Florida statutes
- Obtained order denying class certification in California federal district court case alleging that finance company had violated the Consumer Legal Remedies Act and section 17200 of the California Business & Professions Code in connection with retail installment sales agreements
- Defended finance company in mass arbitration pending in JAMS
- Prevailed in a series of bench trials in California state court cases alleging that debt purchaser client was unable to prove chain of title on purchased fintech loans
- Represented marketing company in defense of class actions filed in federal district courts and Florida state court alleging that text messaging marketing campaigns violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and related state law statutes
- Represented real estate services company in class action in California federal district court alleging that its real estate agents initiated telemarketing calls in violation of the National Do-Not-Call regulations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act
- Represented numerous debt purchasers, law firms, and attorneys in putative class actions filed in California state court alleging that collection complaints filed in California state courts violated the Fair Debt Buying Practices Act, the Rosenthal Act, and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act
- Represented debt purchaser and collection law firm in class action in California Supreme Court in case alleging that state court pretrial pleadings violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Rosenthal Act
- Represented debt purchaser in Oregon Supreme Court in case establishing that account stated is a proper cause of action to recover a credit card account and that Oregon’s six-year statute of limitations applied
- Successfully defended national bank at trial in California state court alleging that bank damaged consumer’s credit standing by improperly reporting account as charged-off in violation of California Credit Reporting Agencies Act
- Defended debt purchaser in overlapping nationwide class actions alleging that it initiated collection calls to customers in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act
- Obtained verdict for debt purchaser in California state court trial alleging that debt purchaser damaged consumer’s credit standing by improperly reporting delinquent credit card account in violation of California Credit Reporting Agencies Act; judgment affirmed by California Court of Appeals
- Defeated motion for class certification in action filed in Arizona District Court alleging that homeowner’s association collection attorneys violated Fair Debt Collection Practices Act
Professional Engagement
- American Bar Association, Consumer Financial Services Committee, Debt Collection Practices and Bankruptcy Subcommittee, Former Chair
- National Creditors Bar Association, Defense Bar Committee and Amicus Committee
- California Creditors Bar Association, Board Member
- Conference On Consumer Finance Law, Governing Committee Member
Honors & Awards
- Recognized in California Super Lawyers (Thomson Reuters), 2008, 2011-2023
Presentations
- Co-Presenter, "Lessons Learned from Consumer Trials," Annual Consumer Financial Services Conference, Dallas, Texas, November 2023
- Panelist, “Ethical Issues Within Legal Collections,” National Creditors Bar Association, Spring Conference, Denver, Colorado, May 2023
- Panelist, “Overview Of Federal Laws Impacting Debt Buyers,” Receivables Management Association International Annual Conference, Las Vegas, Nevada, February 2023
- Panelist, “Consumer Financial Services Basics,” American Bar Association Virtual Conference, October 20, 2022
- Co-Presenter, “Working Backwards From Your Trial Date: Developing Effective Strategies for Managing and Defending Counterclaims,” National Creditors Bar Association, Spring Conference, May 4, 2022
- Co-Presenter, “Creditors' Rights: Contested Consumer Trials & Appellate Practice,” National Creditors Bar Association, Legal Learning Webinar, March 30, 2022
- Speaker, “Current Issues in Receivables Management,” Receivables Management Association International Annual Conference, February 10, 2022
- Speaker, California Association of Judgment Professionals (CAJP) Annual Conference, October 16, 2021
- Panelist, "Hunstein v. Preferred Collection: Our Attorneys (and Special Guest Tomio Narita) Analyze the Eleventh Circuit’s Problematic Recent FDCPA Decision on Third Party Disclosures," April 26, 2021
- Speaker, “Navigating the FDCPA’s Conditional Language Conundrum,” The Conference on Consumer Finance Law Debt Collection Symposium, March 11, 2021
