FDCPA, Other Consumer Rights Lawsuit Stats

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

FDCPA and Other Consumer Rights Lawsuit Statistics, February 16-28, 2010 There were about 463 lawsuits filed under consumer statutes in the second half of February. Here is an approximate breakdown:

384 Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (vs. 238 same period 2009, 221 same period 2008)
49 Fair Credit Reporting Act (vs. 31 same period 2009, 39 same period 2008)
0 Telephone Consumer Protection Act (vs. 2 same period 2009, 0 same period 2008)
16 Truth In Lending Act
1 Credit Repair Organizations Act
2 Driver’s Privacy Protection Act
3 Equal Credit Opportunity Act
1 Electronic Fund Transfers Act
1 Fair Housing Act
1 Higher Education Opportunity Act
1 Homeowners Loan Act
4 State of California Consumer Statutes
1 State of Maryland Consumer Statutes
1 State of Oregon Consumer Statutes
4 State of Texas Consumer Statutes
2 State of West Virginia Consumer Statutes
9 Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act

Summary:

Of those cases, there were about 502 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
Of those plaintiffs, about 258 had sued under consumer statutes before.
Combined, those 258 plaintiffs have filed about 947 lawsuits since 2001
Actions were filed in 105 different US District Court branches.
About 471 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

36 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
34 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles
21 Lawsuits: Minnesota District Court – DMN
16 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
16 Lawsuits: Colorado District Court – Denver
15 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
14 Lawsuits: New York Western District Court – Buffalo
12 Lawsuits: Michigan Eastern District Court – Detroit
12 Lawsuits: California Northern District Court – San Francisco
10 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Central Islip

The most active consumer attorneys were:

Representing 16 Consumers: Adam Theodore Hill
Representing 14 Consumers: George Thomas Martin, III
Representing 14 Consumers: Matthew William Kiverts
Representing 14 Consumers: Sergei Lemberg
Representing 13 Consumers: Ryan Scott Lee
Representing 13 Consumers: Todd Michael Friedman
Representing 12 Consumers: Brent F. Vullings
Representing 11 Consumers: David J. Philipps
Representing 10 Consumers: Diana P. Larson
Representing 9 Consumers: Lara Ruth Shapiro

Statistics Year to Date: 1742 total lawsuits for 2010, including:

1470 FDCPA (vs. 1120 same period 2009, 824 same period 2008)
164 FCRA (vs. 186 same period 2009, 189 same period 2008)
7 TCPA (vs. 3 same period 2009, 5 same period 2008)
69 TILA (Truth in Lending Act)

Number of unique Plaintiffs:

1792 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit) The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

Representing 75 Consumers: Matthew William Kiverts
Representing 66 Consumers: Ryan Scott Lee
Representing 49 Consumers: Brent F. Vullings
Representing 48 Consumers: Adam Theodore Hill
Representing 46 Consumers: David Michael Larson

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.