Ruby ‘Receptionist Minute’ Billing Case Heads Toward Trial

Call-answering service Ruby Receptionists Inc. must face a trial on class claims that it misled its small-business customers, including many law firms, about its billing practice of rounding call times up to the next 30-second interval, a federal court in Oregon ruled.

The term “receptionist minute” in Ruby’s contract is ambiguous, and evidence from outside the contract doesn’t conclusively resolve the issue for either side before trial, Judge Michael H. Simon said Wednesday for the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon.

Simon also declined to decertify the approximately 18,000-member class.

The two class representatives, McKenzie Law Firm PA ...