Can your old employer sue you for using their phone number at a new company?

Question

If your employer disconnects your office phone number after you no longer work there and you call the phone company and to get that number on your personal phone can that old employer sue you for stealing their business if you never signed any agreement not to use that phone number and they wound up disconnecting the number anyway?

This was no easy task.  The phone number was on a landline and it's in a different area than my home.  Landline numbers are pretty much tied to a geographic location.  So I had to find a friend who lived in the same area as the employer and I had to order a landline to be installed there.  I requested the disconnected number and the phone company was able to assign it to me, though they charged me a vanity number fee for having to manually look up and assign that number.

Then after about a I week after the landline was installed, I had to port out the number to a cell phone so I can use it at my house.  That was about $200.00.  And I am getting calls from old clients that had that number for years.  In the meantime, coworkers from my old job heard that I got the company's old number on my cell phone and the boss is really upset.  But they had the line disconnected so what do they care?

curtisports2 · Accepted Answer

No one has any claim on a phone number after they give it up. The phone company owns the phone number and leases it. If they lease it to you, it's yours to use until your business with them ends.

Slickterp · Answer

They do not own the phone number, nor did they ever.

STEVEN F · Answer

My company OWNS every number in the area code with the same 3 digit prefix. When they stop using a given number, it STILL goes to their private exchange. The phone company CAN'T give it to someone else.
The same is true for the VAST majority of companies large enough to notice your scheme.

Not only is you plan not easy, it is most likely IMPOSSIBLE.

Anonymous · Answer

normally no , but you just confessed on a public forum ( YA )  that the intent was to steal their business . they got a good case .

DW · Answer

They have a right to be upset, you took extreme steps to steal their clients.

They can't sue you for the phone number. When they returned the number to the phone company it became that company's number to assign as needed. (Weird that they would return the number. Any company I've worked for would hold on to the number until they have someone to reassign it to.)

I don't know about suing you for taking their clients. That depends on things you didn't reveal (and I wouldn't understand).

The Truthseeker · Answer

Are you pretending to be associated with the old employer, did you gain clients because you used the number, which otherwise you would not have. He could sue, if he can show damages and or loss of clients. You would not win if there is a lawsuit.

Artemisc · Answer

They may come after you for misrepresentation or theft of services.  It's a tough call.

Can your old employer sue you for using their phone number at a new company?

7 Answers