FDCPA Lawsuits Fall Slightly in Second Half of October

Lawsuits filed against ARM companies claiming violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and other statutes fell slightly in the last two weeks of October compared to the first half of the month.

The following statistics are provided to the ARM industry courtesy of WebRecon LLC.

FDCPA and Other Consumer Lawsuit Statistics, October 16-31, 2011

There were about 552 lawsuits filed under consumer statutes in the second half of October 2011. Here is an approximate breakdown:

• 492 FDCPA
•  83 FCRA
• 23 TILA
• 21 TCPA

Summary:

• Of those cases, there were about 561 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
• Of those plaintiffs, about 168 had sued under consumer statutes before.
• Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 979 lawsuits since 2001
• Actions were filed in 123 different US District Court branches.
• About 498 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

• 40 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles
• 31 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
• 30 Lawsuits: Colorado District Court – Denver
• 27 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
• 21 Lawsuits: New York Southern District Court – Foley Square
• 21 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
• 18 Lawsuits: Florida Southern District Court – Fort Lauderdale
• 16 Lawsuits: New Jersey District Court – Newark
• 15 Lawsuits: Minnesota District Court – Dmn
• 13 Lawsuits: Michigan Eastern District Court – Detroit

The most active consumer attorneys were:

• Representing 21 Consumers: David Michael Larson
• Representing 13 Consumers: Samuel A Ehrenfeld
• Representing 13 Consumers: Sergei Lemberg
• Representing 10 Consumers: Nicholas J Bontrager
• Representing 10 Consumers: Shireen Hormozdi
• Representing 10 Consumers: Yaakov Saks
• Representing 9 Consumers: Alex D Weisberg
• Representing 9 Consumers: Bruce K Warren
• Representing 8 Consumers: Jack Dennis Card Jr
• Representing 7 Consumers: Brent Francis Vullings

Statistics Year to Date

10647 total lawsuits for 2011, including:

• 9917 FDCPA
• 1547 FCRA
• 355 TCPA
• 1294 TILA

Number of Unique Plaintiffs: 10836 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

• Representing 299 Consumers: Feng Li
• Representing 293 Consumers: David Michael Larson
• Representing 218 Consumers: Craig Thor Kimmel
• Representing 204 Consumers: Sergei Lemberg
• Representing 171 Consumers: Michael S Agruss

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.