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

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

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

There were about 536 lawsuits filed under consumer statutes in the first half of November 2011. Here is an approximate breakdown:

  • 472 FDCPA
  • 84 FCRA
  • 11 TCPA
  • 26 TILA

Summary:

  • Of those cases, there were about 553 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
  • Of those plaintiffs, about 172 had sued under consumer statutes before.
  • Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 912 lawsuits since 2001
  • Actions were filed in 116 different US District Court branches.
  • About 474 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

  • 40 Lawsuits: New Jersey District Court – Newark
  • 34 Lawsuits: Minnesota District Court – Dmn
  • 28 Lawsuits: Colorado District Court – Denver
  • 27 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles
  • 20 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
  • 19 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
  • 18 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Central Islip
  • 16 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
  • 16 Lawsuits: Michigan Eastern District Court – Detroit
  • 14 Lawsuits: New York Western District Court – Buffalo

The most active consumer attorneys were:

  • Representing 31 Consumers: Yaakov Saks
  • Representing 28 Consumers: Mark L Vavreck
  • Representing 21 Consumers: David Michael Larson
  • Representing 20 Consumers: Mark H Rephen
  • Representing 15 Consumers: Gary D Nitzkin
  • Representing 13 Consumers: Craig Thor Kimmel
  • Representing 12 Consumers: Penny Hays Cauley
  • Representing 12 Consumers: Shireen Hormozdi
  • Representing 10 Consumers: Sergei Lemberg
  • Representing 9 Consumers: Deborah P Gutierrez

Statistics Year to Date

11,176 total lawsuits for 2011, including:

  • 10,402 FDCPA
  • 1656 FCRA
  • 419 TCPA
  • 1342 TILA

Number of Unique Plaintiffs: 11214 (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 218 Consumers: Craig T Kimmel
  • Representing 214 Consumers: Sergei Lemberg
  • Representing 176 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.


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