FDCPA and Other Consumer Rights Lawsuit Statistics, November 1-15, 2009

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

According to CEO Jack Gordon, we officially surpassed the 2008 level of 6638 FDCPA lawsuits on about Nov 1, 2009 – with a full two months left to set a new record. If current trends hold, we can expect to easily exceed 8000 FDCPA lawsuits by years end.

There were about 467 lawsuits filed under consumer statutes in the first half of November. Here is an approximate breakdown:

376 Fair Debt Collection Practices Act
51 Fair Credit Reporting Act
19 Truth In Lending Act
1 Bankruptcy Related
4 Credit Repair Organizations Act
1 Driver’s Privacy Protection Act
1 Equal Credit Opportunity Act
1 Electronic Fund Transfers Act
1 Fair Credit Billing Act
1 Federal Trade Commission Act
1 Graham-Leach-Bliley Act
6 Home Ownership And Equity Protection Act
1 Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act
1 State of Alabama Consumer Statutes
3 State of California Consumer Statutes
1 State of Florida Consumer Statutes
1 State of Illinois Consumer Statutes
1 State of Nevada Consumer Statutes
1 State of New York Consumer Statutes
3 State of Pennsylvania Consumer Statutes
1 State of Texas Consumer Statutes
15 Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act
1 Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act

Summary:

Of those cases, there were about 478 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
Of those plaintiffs, about 137 had sued under consumer statutes before.
Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 911 lawsuits since 2001
Actions were filed in 105 different US District Court branches.
About 451 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

31 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
22 Lawsuits: Colorado District Court – Denver
18 Lawsuits: California Southern District Court – San Diego
17 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
17 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Los Angeles
15 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
15 Lawsuits: Minnesota District Court – DMN
15 Lawsuits: Arizona District Court – Phoenix
13 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Middle District Court – Scranton
12 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Central Islip

The most active consumer attorneys were:

Representing 19 Consumers: Adam Jon Fishbein
Representing 18 Consumers: George Thomas Martin, III
Representing 15 Consumers: Nicholas J. Bontrager
Representing 15 Consumers: David J. Philipps
Representing 14 Consumers: Brent F. Vullings
Representing 13 Consumers: David M. Marco
Representing 13 Consumers: Ryan Scott Lee
Representing 13 Consumers: Sergei Lemberg
Representing 13 Consumers: Kenneth W. Pennington
Representing 12 Consumers: Donald A. Yarbrough

Statistics Year to Date: 8416 total lawsuits for 2009, including:

7010 FDCPA
1044 FCRA
23 TCPA

Number of unique Plaintiffs: 8174 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

Representing 386 Consumers: Ryan Scott Lee
Representing 283 Consumers: Nicholas J. Bontrager
Representing 199 Consumers: Kenneth R. Hiller
Representing 194 Consumers: Todd Michael Friedman
Representing 188 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.