Lawyer Resmini: Catchy phone number worth paying 4

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — What's in a number? A lot, or so it seems.

At least according to Ronald J. Resmini, a personal injury lawyer who secured the number — 401-444-4444 — for the Providence office he runs with his three sons, also lawyers: Adam, Andrew and Jason.

"It's all fours. How can you forget that?" Resmini said in a recent interview. "In any kind of business, it's much easier to remember all fours and all nines."

It's good branding for the firm, too, he says. "The power of four," he quips, referring to the Resmini family team.

But Resmini didn't acquire the vanity number without a glitch along the way.  Resmini and his law offices — in Providence and Seekonk — are suing Nicholas P. Touris, a Florida man who identifies himself on LinkedIn as "nick@phonenumberexpert.com." Touris is also the founder of Miami-based internet marketing company PPLS Inc.

Resmini sued Touris and PPLS in U.S. District Court over the alleged botched sale of the number. He accuses Touris of falsely claiming that he had exclusive right to the 444-4444 number before entering in a contract in January 2016 to sell it to Resmini for $35,000.

After "multiple" disruptions in telephone service, Resmini learned that Touris did not own exclusive right to the number, according to the complaint. In fact, it was actually owned by Rhode Island Hospital, court papers show.

Resmini then had to spend another $18,000 buying it from someone else, whose name he didn't recall, he said.

"I made a request for a nice number for my office. ... It appears the guy I bought the number from bought it from someone else," Resmini said. "All these guys buy these fancy numbers. They trade numbers with each other."

Resmini charges that Touris's misrepresentations led to multiple interruptions in phone service to the law firm, resulting in a potential loss of clients. Resmini initiated the court action after Touris failed to compensate him for his losses, he said. He is seeking $300,000 in damages, according to court papers.

Reached by phone Wednesday, Touris declined to comment due to the pending litigation.

Touris bills himself on his LinkedIn profile as one of the nation’s leading providers of vanity telephone number marketing services.

"We have helped companies from all over the country improve response rates and increase the effectiveness of marketing and advertising through our easy-to-remember phone numbers," the page states. "Companies that range in size from sole proprietors to Fortune 1000 companies have put their trust in us — and the results speak for themselves."

Resmini said he drew his inspiration to land a catchy number after seeing billboards advertising all sorts of services in Florida, all with vanity numbers.

He commented, too, about the ease with which one can recall the number for the Bottaro Law Firm, as seen in advertisements here in Rhode Island: (401) 777-7777.

For Robert J. Levine, dubbed in ads as the "Heavy Hitter," not so much, Resmini said — but Levine has a jingle.