New Statistics Reveal 8.73% Of Consumer Attorneys Represent 65.4% of All FDCPA Plaintiffs

Grand Rapids, MI — According to a recent analysis of 2009 lawsuits in the WebRecon database, only 8.73 percent of consumer attorneys have represented 65.4 percent of the plaintiffs that file laawsuits under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). In raw numbers, of 1,890 individual consumer attorneys, the top 165 filed 6,578 out of the 10,057 total complaints.

"On a practical level," according to WebRecon CEO Jack Gordon, "being able to link top consumer attorneys to actual debtors with a litigious past in a collection database could be an excellent way to mitigate the risk of impending, predictable lawsuits. Our service allows collection firms to do just that."

FDCPA and Other Consumer Rights Lawsuit Statistics, September 16-30, 2009

Monthly Recap: There were a total of 732 FDCPA cases filed for the month of September 2009, along with 69 FCRA cases and 5 TCPA cases. This compares to 489 FDCPA cases and 105 FCRA cases in September 2008.

There were about 452 lawsuits filed under consumer statutes in the second half of September. Here is an approximate breakdown:

• 383 Fair Debt Collection Practices Act
• 30 Fair Credit Reporting Act 
• 3 Telephone Consumer Protection Act
• 18 Truth In Lending Act 
• 2 Consumer Legal Remedies Act 
• 1 Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act 
• 1 Driver’s Privacy Protection Act
• 1 Electronic Fund Transfers Act
• 1 Employee Retirement Income Security Act
• 1 Fair Credit Billing Act 
• 2 Florida Consumer Collection Practices Act 
• 1 Federal Employee Health Benefits Act
• 2 Home Ownership And Equity Protection Act
• 1 Illinois Consumer Fraud & Deceptive Business Practices Act
• 1 Kentucky Consumer Protection Act 
• 1 Michigan Consumer Protection Act 
• 4 Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act
• 4 Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act 
• 3 Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act 
• 1 Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act 
• 1 Securities Exchange Act
• 1 Unfair Business Practices 
• 10 Unjust Enrichment 
• 1 Washington Consumer Protection Act 
• 1 West Virginia Consumer Credit & Protection Act

Of those cases, there were about 492 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit). About 460 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

• Of those plaintiffs, about 158 had sued under consumer statutes before.
• Combined, those 158 plaintiffs have filed about 890 lawsuits since 2001

Actions were filed in 103 different US District Court branches.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

• 40 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
• 30 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Los Angeles
• 27 Lawsuits: Minnesota District Court – DMN 
• 22 Lawsuits: Florida Southern District Court – Fort Lauderdale 
• 17 Lawsuits: Colorado District Court – Denver 
• 16 Lawsuits: Connecticut District Court – New Haven 
• 15 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia 
• 14 Lawsuits: New York Western District Court – Buffalo
• 12 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Central Islip 
• 11 Lawsuits: California Northern District Court – San Francisco

The most active consumer attorneys were:

• Representing 20 Consumers: Donald A. Yarbrough
• Representing 19 Consumers: Michael S Agruss 
• Representing 17 Consumers: Brent F. Vullings 
• Representing 13 Consumers: Daniel A. Edelman 
• Representing 13 Consumers: David J. Philipps 
• Representing 13 Consumers: Mark L. Vavreck 
• Representing 12 Consumers: David Michael Larson 
• Representing 12 Consumers: George Thomas Martin, III 
• Representing 12 Consumers: Nicholas J. Bontrager 
• Representing 11 Consumers: Adam Theodore Hill

Statistics Year to Date:

7103 total lawsuits for 2009

• 5872 FDCPA
• 905 FCRA 
• 123 TCPA

Number of unique Plaintiffs: 7034 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year

• Representing 351 Consumers: Ryan Scott Lee
• Representing 234 Consumers: Nicholas J. Bontrager 
• Representing 187 Consumers: Kenneth R. Hiller 
• Representing 174 Consumers: Todd Michael Friedman 
• Representing 159 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. www.webrecon.com