FDCPA Lawsuits Flat in First Half of December

Lawsuits filed against ARM firms claiming violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and other consumer statutes were largely flat in the first half of December compared to the last two weeks of November, discounting the impact of an unusually large suit.

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

This period’s statistics are skewed by one very large lawsuit, the third such instance in recent months. “Bonne V. Encore Capital Group,” with 168 unique plaintiffs, was filed Dec. 8 by attorney Dale Wood Pittman. This more than doubles the number of consumers Pittman has represented in 2011 to 309, up from 141 in the prior period.

FDCPA and Other Consumer Lawsuit Statistics, December 1-15, 2011

There were about 441 lawsuits filed under consumer statutes in the first half of December 2011. Here is an approximate breakdown:

• 571 FDCPA (including 168 plaintiffs in one lawsuit)
• 184 TCPA (including 168 plaintiffs in one lawsuit)
• 48 FCRA
• 24 TILA

Summary:

• Of those cases, there were about 638 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
• Of those plaintiffs, about 199, or 18%, had sued under consumer statutes before.
• Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 1142 lawsuits since 2001
• Actions were filed in 117 different US District Court branches.
• About 497 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

• 33 Lawsuits: Colorado District Court – Denver
• 26 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
• 26 Lawsuits: Minnesota District Court – Dmn
• 21 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
• 17 Lawsuits: Michigan Eastern District Court – Detroit
• 15 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
• 14 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles
• 12 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
• 10 Lawsuits: New York Western District Court – Buffalo
• 10 Lawsuits: New York Southern District Court – Foley Square

The most active consumer attorneys were:

• Representing 168 Consumers: Dale Wood Pittman
• Representing 17 Consumers: David M Larson
• Representing 12 Consumers: Nicholas J Bontrager
• Representing 12 Consumers: Shireen Hormozdi
• Representing 12 Consumers: Gary D Nitzkin
• Representing 12 Consumers: Michael S Agruss
• Representing 9 Consumers: Craig T Kimmel

• Representing 9 Consumers: Joseph M Meinhardt
• Representing 9 Consumers: Mark L Vavreck
• Representing 8 Consumers: Mahadhi Corzano

Statistics Year to Date

12,029 total lawsuits for 2011, including:

• 11,359 FDCPA
• 1,762 FCRA
• 616 TCPA
• 1,406 TILA

Number of Unique Plaintiffs: 12,163 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

• Representing 345 Consumers: David Michael Larson
• Representing 309 Consumers: Dale Wood Pittman
• Representing 299 Consumers: Feng Li
• Representing 248 Consumers: Craig T Kimmel
• Representing 235 Consumers: Sergei Lemberg

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.