FDCPA and Other Consumer Rights Lawsuit Statistics, October 1-15, 2009

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

There were about 468 lawsuits filed under consumer statutes in the first half of October. Here is an approximate breakdown:

• 356 Fair Debt Collection Practices Act
• 55 Fair Credit Reporting Act
• 5 Telephone Consumer Protection Act
• 23 Truth In Lending Act
• 1 Consumer Legal Remedies Act
• 1 California Unfair Competition Law
• Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act
• 1 Equal Credit Opportunity Act
• 1 Electronic Fund Transfers Act
• 4 Employee Retirement Income Security Act
• 1 Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act
• 3 Federal Trade Commission Act
• 1 Home Ownership And Equity Protection Act
• 2 Illinois Consumer Fraud & Deceptive Business Practices Act
• 1 Massachusetts Consumer Credit Code
• 2 Maryland Consumer Protection Act
• 1 Michigan Consumer Protection Act
• 2 Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act
• 1 Ohio Consumer Sales Practices Act
• 1 Pennsylvania Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law
• 10 Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act
• 3 Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act
• 2 Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act
• 1 Securities Exchange Act
• 1 Unfair Business Practices
• 7 Unjust Enrichment
• 1 Video Privacy Protection Act
• 3 Washington Consumer Protection Act
• 2 West Virginia Consumer Credit & Protection Act

Summary:

• Of those cases, there were about 520 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
• Of those plaintiffs, about 136 had sued under consumer statutes before.
• Combined, those 136 plaintiffs have filed about 915 lawsuits since 2001
• Actions were filed in 106 different US District Court branches.
• About 519 different collection firms and creditors were sued
• The top courts where lawsuits were filed:
• 41 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
• 26 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Los Angeles
• 19 Lawsuits: California Southern District Court – San Diego
• 18 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
• 15 Lawsuits: California Eastern District Court – Sacramento
• 14 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
• 14 Lawsuits: Minnesota District Court – DMN
• 13 Lawsuits: New York Western District Court – Buffalo
• 13 Lawsuits: Colorado District Court – Denver
•  11 Lawsuits: Virginia Eastern District Court – Richmond

The most active consumer attorneys were:

• Representing 28 Consumers: George Thomas Martin, III
• Representing 22 Consumers: Nicholas J. Bontrager
• Representing 17 Consumers: Brent F. Vullings
• Representing 14 Consumers: Michael S Agruss
• Representing 11 Consumers: David J. Philipps
• Representing 9 Consumers: Peter Cozmyk
• Representing 9 Consumers: Matthew William Kiverts
• Representing 9 Consumers: Ryan Scott Lee
• Representing 8 Consumers: Kenneth R. Hiller
• Representing 8 Consumers: Daniel A. Edelman

Statistics Year to Date:

7566 total lawsuits for 2009:

• 6225 FDCPA
• 959 FCRA
• 21 TCPA

Number of unique Plaintiffs: 7490 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

• Representing 360 Consumers: Ryan Scott Lee
• Representing 256 Consumers: Nicholas J. Bontrager
• Representing 195 Consumers: Kenneth R. Hiller
• Representing 182 Consumers: Todd Michael Friedman
• Representing 167 Consumers: Daniel A. Edelman

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.