FDCPA Lawsuits Continue Downward Slide in November

Lawsuits filed against ARM companies claiming violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and other statutes fell again in the second half of November after a similar drop in the first half of the month.

Jack Gordon, CEO of litigation tracking service WebRecon LLC, commented, “There is one piece of good news in this update…it looks like the pace of FDCPA lawsuits has slowed a bit, and we will likely fall slightly short of the predicted milestone of 12,000 FDCPA suits filed in US District Courts for 2011.”

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

There were about 423 lawsuits filed under consumer statutes in the second half of November 2011. Here is an approximate breakdown:

• 385 FDCPA
• 58 FCRA
• 13 TCPA
• 40 TILA

Summary:

• Of those cases, there were about 463 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
• Of those plaintiffs, about 169, or 20%, had sued under consumer statutes before.
• Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 865 lawsuits since 2001
• Actions were filed in 101 different US District Court branches.
• About 427 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

• 25 Lawsuits: Colorado District Court – Denver
• 22 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles
• 21 Lawsuits: Minnesota District Court – Dmn
• 20 Lawsuits: New Jersey District Court – Newark
• 20 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
• 19 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
• 16 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
• 13 Lawsuits: New York Western District Court – Buffalo
• 10 Lawsuits: New York Southern District Court – White Plains
• 10 Lawsuits: California Northern District Court – San Francisco

The most active consumer attorneys were:

• Representing 18 Consumers: Edwin D Hoskins
• Representing 14 Consumers: David M Larson
• Representing 13 Consumers: Sergei Lemberg
• Representing 12 Consumers: Brent F Vullings
• Representing 12 Consumers: Yaakov Saks
• Representing 10 Consumers: Tammy L Hussin
• Representing 9 Consumers: David J Philipps
• Representing 9 Consumers: Jody B Burton
• Representing 9 Consumers: Shireen Hormozdi
• Representing 8 Consumers: Craig J Ehrlich

Statistics Year to Date

11597 total lawsuits for 2011, including:

• 10788 FDCPA
• 1714 FCRA
• 432 TCPA
• 1382 TILA

Number of Unique Plaintiffs: 11610 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit) The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

• Representing 314 Consumers: David Michael Larson
• Representing 299 Consumers: Feng Li
• Representing 239 Consumers: Craig T Kimmel
• Representing 227 Consumers: Sergei Lemberg
• Representing 179 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.