FDCPA Law Suits for the Collection Industry

Grand Rapids, MI – The following statistics are provided to the ARM industry courtesy of WebRecon LLC.

Monthly recap: There were about 915 consumer rights lawsuits in the month of November, including 765 FDCPA and 85 FCRA suits filed against creditors and collection agencies.

FDCPA and Other Consumer Rights Lawsuit Statistics, November 16-30, 2009

There were about 480 lawsuits filed under consumer statutes in the second half of November. Here is an approximate breakdown:

• 408 Fair Debt Collection Practices Act
• 39 Fair Credit Reporting Act
• 1 Telephone Consumer Protection Act
• 19 Truth In Lending Act
• 2 Bankruptcy Related
• 3 Equal Credit Opportunity Act
• 2 Electronic Fund Transfers Act
• 1 Fair Credit Billing Act
• 2 Federal Trade Commission Act
• 1 Graham-Leach-Bliley Act
• 1 Higher Education Opportunity Act
• 2 Homeowners Loan Act
• 1 Home Ownership And Equity Protection Act
• 1 Internal Revenue Code
• 1 State of California Consumer Statutes
• 1 District Of Columbia Consumer Statutes
• 1 State of Michigan Consumer Statutes
• 1 State of Missouri Consumer Statutes
• 1 State of New York Consumer Statutes
• 1 State of Ohio Consumer Statutes
• 4 Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act
• 1 Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act

Summary:

• Of those cases, there were about 501 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
• Of those plaintiffs, about 148 had sued under consumer statutes before.
• Combined, those 148 plaintiffs have filed about 1384 lawsuits since 2001
• Actions were filed in 106 different US District Court branches.
• About 315 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

• 44 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles
• 24 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
• 21 Lawsuits: New York Western District Court – Buffalo
• 19 Lawsuits: Connecticut District Court – New Haven
• 18 Lawsuits: Minnesota District Court – DMN
• 18 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
• 16 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
• 13 Lawsuits: Colorado District Court – Denver
• 13 Lawsuits: Arizona District Court – Phoenix
• 11 Lawsuits: California Northern District Court – San Francisco

The most active consumer attorneys were:

• Representing 22 Consumers: Sergei Lemberg
• Representing 21 Consumers: Todd Michael Friedman
• Representing 18 Consumers: Matthew William Kiverts
• Representing 18 Consumers: George Thomas Martin, III
• Representing 18 Consumers: Ryan Scott Lee
• Representing 17 Consumers: Nicholas J. Bontrager
• Representing 16 Consumers: Adam Theodore Hill
• Representing 13 Consumers: Brent F. Vullings
• Representing 12 Consumers: Donald A. Yarbrough
• Representing 11 Consumers: Peter Cozmyk

Statistics Year to Date: 9213 total lawsuits for 2009, including:

• 7511 FDCPA
• 1090 FCRA
• 25 TCPA

Number of unique Plaintiffs:

8908 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit) The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

• Representing 404 Consumers: Ryan Scott Lee
• Representing 304 Consumers: Nicholas J. Bontrager
• Representing 216 Consumers: Todd Michael Friedman
• Representing 203 Consumers: Kenneth R. Hiller
• Representing 201 Consumers: Brent F. Vullings

About WebRecon LLC:
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.