FDCPA and Other Consumer Rights Lawsuit Statistics

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

Monthly Recap: There were a total of 766 FDCPA cases filed for the month of October 2009, along with 89 FCRA cases and 7 TCPA cases. This compares to 506 FDCPA cases and 101 FCRA cases in October 2008.

FDCPA and Other Consumer Rights Lawsuit Statistics, October 16-31, 2009 There were about 492 lawsuits filed under consumer statutes in the second half of October. Here is an approximate breakdown:

• 415 Fair Debt Collection Practices Act
• 37 Fair Credit Reporting Act
• 2 Telephone Consumer Protection Act
• 19 Truth In Lending Act
• 1 Consumer Legal Remedies Act
• 1 Credit Repair Organizations Act
• 2 California Unfair Competition Law
• 3 Equal Credit Opportunity Act
• 2 Electronic Fund Transfers Act
• 2 Fair Housing Act
• 1 Federal Trade Commission Act
• 2 Home Ownership And Equity Protection Act
• 1 Indiana Deceptive Consumer Sales Act
• 1 New York Unfair and Deceptive Acts and Practices
• 1 Pennsylvania Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law
• 6 Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act
• 1 Right to Financial Privacy Act
• 1 Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act
• 1 Unfair Business Practices
• 7 Unjust Enrichment
• 1 Wisconsin Consumer Act
• 1 Washington Consumer Protection Act
• 2 West Virginia Consumer Credit & Protection Act

Summary:

• Of those cases, there were about 541 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
• Of those plaintiffs, about 155 had sued under consumer statutes before.
• Combined, those 155 plaintiffs have filed about 774 lawsuits since 2001
• Actions were filed in 108 different US District Court branches.
• About 483 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

• 40 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles
• 33 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
• 23 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
• 18 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court – Tampa
• 17 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
• 15 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Central Islip
• 15 Lawsuits: Florida Southern District Court – Fort Lauderdale
• 14 Lawsuits: Minnesota District Court – DMN
• 12 Lawsuits: California Southern District Court – San Diego
• 12 Lawsuits: Colorado District Court – Denver

The most active consumer attorneys were:

• Representing 32 Consumers: George Thomas Martin, III
• Representing 23 Consumers: Gene W. Choe
• Representing 22 Consumers: Matthew William Kiverts
• Representing 19 Consumers: Ryan Scott Lee
• Representing 19 Consumers: Adam Jon Fishbein
• Representing 17 Consumers: Sergei Lemberg
• Representing 14 Consumers: Nicholas J. Bontrager
• Representing 11 Consumers: Adam Jacob Krohn
• Representing 11 Consumers: Kenneth W. Pennington
• Representing 11 Consumers: Donald A. Yarbrough

Statistics Year to Date:
8052 total lawsuits for 2009:

• 6638 FDCPA
• 994 FCRA
• 23 TCPA

Number of unique Plaintiffs: 7898 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

• Representing 379 Consumers: Ryan Scott Lee
• Representing 270 Consumers: Nicholas J. Bontrager
• Representing 199 Consumers: Kenneth R. Hiller
• Representing 191 Consumers: Todd Michael Friedman
• Representing 174 Consumers: Brent F. Vullings

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.