FDCPA Lawsuits Against Collectors Increase Slightly in Second Half of June

Lawsuits filed against ARM companies claiming violations of the FDCPA and other consumer statutes increased slightly in the last two weeks of June compared to the first half of June.

The following statistics are provided to the ARM industry courtesy of WebRecon LLC.  Be sure to find WebRecon in booth 453 at the upcoming ACA conference in Dallas!

FDCPA and Other Consumer Lawsuit Statistics, June 16-30, 2011

There were about 567 lawsuits filed under consumer statutes in the second half of June 2011. Here is an approximate breakdown:

• 476 FDCPA
• 66 FCRA
• 40 TILA
• 4 TCPA

Summary:

Of those cases, there were about 601 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).

Of those plaintiffs, about 173 had sued under consumer statutes before.
Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 1065 lawsuits since 2001
Actions were filed in 121 different US District Court branches.
About 614 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

• 33 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
• 32 Lawsuits: Colorado District Court – Denver
• 30 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles
• 25 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
• 23 Lawsuits: New Jersey District Court – Newark
• 20 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
• 14 Lawsuits: New York Western District Court – Buffalo
• 14 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
• 12 Lawsuits: California Southern District Court – San Diego
• 11 Lawsuits: Florida Southern District Court – Miami

The most active consumer attorneys were:

• Representing 18 Consumers: David Michael Larson
• Representing 14 Consumers: Sofia Balile
• Representing 13 Consumers: Craig Thor Kimmel
• Representing 13 Consumers: Alex D. Weisberg
• Representing 13 Consumers: Adam Jon Fishbein
• Representing 12 Consumers: David Wynn Miller
• Representing 10 Consumers: Darin Shaw
• Representing 10 Consumers: Tammy Lee Hussin
• Representing 9 Consumers: Ryan Scott Lee
• Representing 8 Consumers: Jack Dennis Card, Jr.

Statistics Year to Date

6378 total lawsuits for 2011, including:

• 5888 FDCPA
• 622 FCRA
• 620 TILA
• 224 TCPA

Number of Unique Plaintiffs: 6563 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

• Representing 184 Consumers: David Michael Larson
• Representing 167 Consumers: Craig Thor Kimmel
• Representing 140 Consumers: Jack Dennis Card, Jr.
• Representing 115 Consumers: Andrew Ira Glenn
• Representing 110 Consumers: Dale Wood Pittman

Creditors and collection firms use WebRecon’s services to easily segregate predictably litigious consumers from their databases. A significant percentage of consumer litigation is initiated by the same consumers over and over again, and screening them out of the general population can reduce lawsuits by as much as a third.