WebRecon LLC Adds About a Dozen New Consumer Statutes to its Watchlist

Grand Rapids, MI – In response to popular demand from the ARM industry, WebRecon LLC has begun tracking many more consumer statutes than before. In addition to FDCPA, FCRA and TCPA, clients can now expect to see lawsuits classified under Truth in Lending, Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, Equal Credit Opportunity Act and many more in the WebRecon database.

Collection agencies and original creditors alike will benefit from the greatly expanded scope of consumer rights lawsuits and the litigious consumers who file them.

Additionally, WebRecon LLC is happy to announce a new category of membership – for only $19/month, members will receive a hotlist of all new repeat litigants twice monthly, as well as the ability to query the database for individual litigant names. This category of membership does not include batching capability.

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

FDCPA and Other Consumer Rights Lawsuit Statistics, August 16-31, 2009

There were about 475 lawsuits filed under tracked consumer statutes in the second half of August. Here is an approximate breakdown:

• 367 Fair Debt Collection Practices Act
• 75 Fair Credit Reporting Act
• 1 Telephone Consumer Protection Act
• 24 Truth In Lending Act
• 1 Driver’s Privacy Protection Act
• 2 California Unfair Competition Law
• 1 Consumer Legal Remedies Act
• 1 Home Ownership And Equity Protection Act
• 2 Unjust Enrichment
• 5 Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act 
• 1 Personal Injury
• 1 Unfair Business Practices
• 1 Credit Repair Organizations Act
• 1 Equal Credit Opportunity Act

• Of those cases, there were about 506 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
• Of those plaintiffs, about 104 had sued under consumer statutes before.
• Combined, those 104 plaintiffs have filed about 706 lawsuits since 2001
• Actions were filed in 120 different US District Court branches.
• About 513 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

• 39 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
• 33 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles
• 20 Lawsuits: Minnesota District Court – DMN
• 17 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
• 15 Lawsuits: Texas Southern District Court – Houston
• 12 Lawsuits: Colorado District Court – Denver
• 12 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court – Tampa
• 12 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
• 12 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Middle District Court – Scranton
• 11 Lawsuits: Arizona District Court – Phoenix

The most active consumer attorneys were:

• Representing 26 Consumers: Ryan Scott Lee
• Representing 12 Consumers: Brent F. Vullings
• Representing 11 Consumers: David J. Philipps
• Representing 11 Consumers: Nicholas J. Bontrager
• Representing 10 Consumers: Alan C. Lee
• Representing 10 Consumers: Diana P. Larson
• Representing 10 Consumers: Kenneth W. Pennington
• Representing 9  Consumers: E David Hoskins
• Representing 9  Consumers: Matthew William Kiverts
• Representing 9  Consumers: Todd Michael Friedman

Statistics Year to Date

6160 total lawsuits for 2009:

• 5111 FDCPA
• 853 FCRA
• 9  TCPA

Number of unique Plaintiffs: 6126 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

• Representing 335 Consumers: Ryan Scott Lee
• Representing 214 Consumers: Nicholas J. Bontrager
• Representing 171 Consumers: Kenneth R. Hiller
• Representing 156 Consumers: Todd Michael Friedman
• Representing 137 Consumers: Amanda R. Jordan

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.