FDCPA Lawsuits Against Collectors Averaging More than 800 Per Month

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

FDCPA and Other Consumer Rights Lawsuit Statistics, May 16-31, 2010

There were about 482 lawsuits filed under consumer statutes in the second half of May. Here is an approximate breakdown:

• 406 Fair Debt Collection Practices Act
• 42 Fair Credit Reporting Act
• 4 Telephone Consumer Protection Act
• 19 Truth In Lending Act
• 1 Bankruptcy Related
• 4 Equal Credit Opportunity Act
• 2 Electronic Fund Transfers Act
• 1 Home Ownership And Equity Protection Act
• 4 State of California Consumer Statutes
• 1 State of Florida Consumer Statutes
• 6 State of Maryland Consumer Statutes
• 7 Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act
• 2 Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act

Summary:

• Of those cases, there were about 500 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
• Of those plaintiffs, about 181 had sued under consumer statutes before.
• Combined, those 181 plaintiffs have filed about 1015 lawsuits since 2001
• Actions were filed in 103 different US District Court branches.
• About 452 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

• 31 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
• 27 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles
• 27 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
• 22 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Central Islip
• 17 Lawsuits: Colorado District Court – Denver
• 16 Lawsuits: Minnesota District Court – DMN
• 15 Lawsuits: Connecticut District Court – New Haven
• 14 Lawsuits: California Northern District Court – San Francisco
• 14 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
• 13 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Middle District Court – Harrisburg

The most active consumer attorneys were:

• Representing 19 Consumers: Brent F. Vullings
• Representing 16 Consumers: Donald A. Yarbrough
• Representing 15 Consumers: Adam Jon Fishbein
• Representing 13 Consumers: Sergei Lemberg
• Representing 12 Consumers: Craig Thor Kimmel
• Representing 11 Consumers: Bernard Thomas Kennedy
• Representing 11 Consumers: David Michael Larson
• Representing 11  Consumers: Lara Ruth Shapiro
• Representing 10  Consumers: John Cole Gayle, Jr.
• Representing 10  Consumers: James Marvin Feagle

Statistics Year to Date

4808 total lawsuits for 2010, including:

• 4099 FDCPA
• 419 FCRA
• 16 TCPA
• 172 TILA (Truth in Lending Act)

Number of unique Plaintiffs: 4733 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

• Representing 147 Consumers: Sergei Lemberg
• Representing 144 Consumers: Brent F. Vullings
• Representing 120 Consumers: Ryan Scott Lee
• Representing 120 Consumers: David Michael Larson
• Representing 110 Consumers: Todd Michael Friedman

About WebRecon LLC
Creditors and collection firms use WebRecon’s (www.WebRecon.com) 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.