FDCPA Lawsuits in 2011 Revised Up Over 12,000

More consumers filed lawsuits in U.S. district courts against accounts receivable management and related companies in 2011 than in any other year. But according to a recent revision, the number of FDCPA lawsuits exceeded the psychological level of 12,000 last year, contrary to initial reports.

When lawsuit tracking firm WebRecon in January reported results for 2011, it appeared that lawsuits claiming violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) would not reach the projected level of 12,000. But over the past few weeks, a further analysis of the data has proven otherwise.

“The WebRecon data team has had an opportunity to go back through the year’s complaints more thoroughly,” noted WebRecon CEO Jack Gordon. “In this process, we have been able to identify some omissions which inadvertently depressed the overall litigation counts for 2011.”

Among the noteworthy changes is that FDCPA complaints surpassed 12,000, and both TCPA and TILA litigation were significantly higher than previously reported. FCRA moved upward as well, but the change was less dramatic. Also, the total number of unique consumer litigants has surpassed 13,000:

Even with the new numbers, the growth rate of consumer-originated FDCPA litigation has slowed over the past two years. FDCPA litigation hit its peak growth rate in 2009, when the total number of cases filed increased 52 percent over 2008. The growth rate dropped to 19 percent in 2010, and was just 8 percent in 2011.