Start a Free Trial

Debt Collection Litigation & CFPB Complaint Statistics, November 2013

/
December 20, 2013
/
Blog/Litigation Stats

Quick analysis:  November confirmed what has been fairly clear all year - FDCPA and FCRA litigation against debt collectors is declining, while TCPA is expanding. It looks like 2013 will end with FDCPA down around 10% over 2012 and FCRA down nominally, while TCPA continues its aggressive growth with near-70% growth over last year. Caveat... early 2014 will likely bring some adjustments that may tighten these stats up a bit (new years usually do). Even so, FDCPA is now in its second year in a row of significant decline, FCRA is still plateaued and TCPA is skyrocketing. There is currently no reason to believe 2014 will significantly change any of those trends.

On the CFPB complaint front, we saw complaints rise from 1197 in October to 1262 in November (a 6% increase). One big question that has been answered is whether the lag time between a consumer filing a complaint and the CFPB reporting a complaint was causing the statistics to be significantly inaccurate at our time of reporting. The answer is... no. While there were a few complaints (11, actually) that snuck into the database for October after we reported last month, it is not enough to cause concern. So last month's big news of a plummet in reported complaints stands, and this month we saw some movement (slight as it is) to begin to close that gap. We still don't know why the drop, but we do know it is accurate.

On to the data...

November 2013 Litigation Data (scroll down for CFPB data)

litigation-2013_11_nov

Litigation Statistics:

About 960 consumers filed lawsuits under consumer statutes in November 2013. Here is an approximate breakdown:

  • 684 FDCPA
  • 186 FCRA
  • 205 TCPA

Summary:

  • Of those cases, there were about 960 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
  • Of those plaintiffs, about 324, or (33.8%), had sued under consumer statutes before.
  • Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 1734 lawsuits since 2001
  • Actions were filed in 146 different US District Court branches.
  • About 759 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

  • 62 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court - Chicago
  • 36 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court - Brooklyn
  • 34 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court - Philadelphia
  • 32 Lawsuits: Minnesota District Court - Dmn
  • 28 Lawsuits: Colorado District Court - Denver
  • 25 Lawsuits: Hawaii District Court - Honolulu
  • 25 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court - Atlanta
  • 24 Lawsuits: California Central District Court - Los Angeles
  • 21 Lawsuits: Florida Southern District Court - Fort Lauderdale
  • 19 Lawsuits: Michigan Eastern District Court - Detroit

The most active consumer attorneys were:

  • Representing 51 Consumers: Sergei Lemberg
  • Representing 43 Consumers: Roger Y Dewa
  • Representing 22 Consumers: Jody Berke Burton
  • Representing 16 Consumers: Tammy L Hussin
  • Representing 15 Consumers: Mark D Mailman
  • Representing 15 Consumers: David Michael Larson
  • Representing 13 Consumers: Matthew Jon Militzok
  • Representing 11 Consumers: Shpetim Ademi
  • Representing 11 Consumers: John D Blythin
  • Representing 11 Consumers: Gary D Nitzkin

Statistics Year to Date:

11,092 total lawsuits for 2013, including:

  • 9560 FDCPA
  • 2048 FCRA
  • 1679 TCPA

Number of Unique Plaintiffs: 11,663 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

  • Representing 348 Consumers: Sergei Lemberg
  • Representing 258 Consumers: David Michael Larson
  • Representing 211 Consumers: Daniel A Edelman
  • Representing 197 Consumers: Craig Thor Kimmel
  • Representing 191 Consumers: Jody Berke Burton
  • Representing 186 Consumers: David J Philipps
  • Representing 179 Consumers: Mary Elizabeth Philipps
  • Representing 163 Consumers: Gary D Nitzkin
  • Representing 159 Consumers: Cathleen M Combs
  • Representing 154 Consumers: James O Latturner

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CFPB Complaint Statistics:

cfpb-2013_11_nov

There were 1262 complaints filed against debt collectors in November 2013.

Total number of debt collectors complained about: 355

The types of debt behind the complaints were:

  • 368 Other (phone, health club, etc.) (29.2%)
  • 290 Unknown (23%)
  • 254 Credit card (20.1%)
  • 120 Medical (9.5%)
  • 59 Payday loan (4.7%)
  • 46 Mortgage (3.6%)
  • 43 Federal student loan (3.4%)
  • 43 Non-federal student loan (3.4%)
  • 39 Auto (3.1%)

Here is a breakdown of complaints:

  • 527 Cont'd attempts collect debt not owed (41.8%)
  • 260 Communication tactics (20.6%)
  • 190 Disclosure verification of debt (15.1%)
  • 108 Improper contact or sharing of info (8.6%)
  • 105 False statements or representation (8.3%)
  • 72 Taking/threatening an illegal action (5.7%)

The top five subissues were:

  • 349 Debt is not mine (27.7%)
  • 173 Frequent or repeated calls (13.7%)
  • 134 Not given enough info to verify debt (10.6%)
  • 122 Debt was paid (9.7%)
  • 79 Attempted to collect wrong amount (6.3%)

The top states complaints were filed from are:

  • 161 Complaints: CA
  • 105 Complaints: FL
  • 103 Complaints: TX
  • 79 Complaints: NY
  • 62 Complaints: GA
  • 51 Complaints: NJ
  • 47 Complaints: PA
  • 46 Complaints: OH
  • 42 Complaints: MD
  • 40 Complaints: VA

The status of the month's complaints are as follows:

  • 812 Closed with explanation (64.3%)
  • 228 Closed with non-monetary relief (18.1%)
  • 157 In progress (12.4%)
  • 48 Closed (3.8%)
  • 17 Closed with monetary relief (1.3%)

This includes 1262 (100%) timely responses to complaints, and  (0%) untimely responses

Of the company responses, consumers accepted 1116 (88.4%) of them, and disputed 146 (11.6%) of them

The top five days for complaints were:81 Complaints: 11/13/2013

  • 72 Complaints: 11/25/2013
  • 72 Complaints: 11/05/2013
  • 66 Complaints: 11/14/2013
  • 64 Complaints: 11/19/2013

 

Previous Debt Collection Litigation & CFPB Complaint Statistics, October 2013 Next Debt Collection Litigation & CFPB Complaint Statistics, December 2013 & Year in Review
RECENT POST

WebRecon LLC is a part of the Americloud Holdings LLC family of companies. (855) WEB-RECON

© WebRecon LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Individual Search Engine


Instantly and easily search our proprietary database for any lawsuit participant – Plaintiff, Defendant or Attorney.

In the results, we’ll show you the full consumer litigation history of any participant, including the “docket data” (who, what, why, where, when) and – in many cases – we can even provide a copy of their actual filed lawsuits.

You can also search by phone, date range, federal/state, class action, court, statute, etc. We offer a ton of flexibility to get you the exact search result you are looking for.

The Litigant Alert Ongoing Monitoring Process


Just like our one-time batch process, but without the whole “one time” thing.

When one of your consumers files new litigation against anyone in the future, you should be the first to know. Our monitoring service can make that happen.

WebRecon can monitor your entire database (or any segment of it) for future instances of consumer litigation filed by the very consumers you are working with, right now!

It is simple to add new consumers to the watchlist, remove inactive accounts, download full reports, etc.

Best of all, we only charge you for the volume of your monitoring database – not the frequency of the searches. Search daily, weekly, every Tuesday and Friday, the 15th of each month, whatever – it is totally up to you! You won’t pay a penny more.

The Litigant Alert One-Time Batch Process


This is our flagship service. Find out why hundreds of companies won’t contact any consumers before running them through WebRecon’s Litigant Alert.

This process identifies consumers with a history of litigation quickly & easily. If they have ever filed lawsuits under FDCPA, TCPA, FCRA or similar statutes, you’ll find out here. 

WebRecon’s proprietary database is simply the most comprehensive collection of dangerous consumer litigation data in existence. 

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

Litigation Context Search


This is really cool.

Our primary search engine is really designed to search for parties to litigation. Need to know more about a consumer plaintiff? That’s easy. Defendant? Check. Lawyer? No problem.

But if you need to find all 1099C lawsuits filed in July 2020… not so much.

Which is why we developed the Context Search. We have pulled out and indexed the full text from over 140k consumer lawsuits and made them available to you in a search engine, with more than 1000 new lawsuits added each month. Use it to search the text of filed litigation so you can easily identify those hard-to-define trends and cases worth following.

The Litigious Consumer Phone Scrub


Would you knowingly dial a number attached to a consumer with a history of litigation? Of course not.

But thousands of companies do just that, every single day. If you’d like to know who they are, simply review the court dockets. They are the ones getting sued the most.

Sure, you can stop dialing consumers. But your marketing and operations teams might not be too excited about that plan.

Another idea? Identify the consumers most likely to sue you, based on previous litigation histories, and just don’t call them.

Identify high-risk phones quickly & easily, before you expose yourself to unnecessary risk.

Workers Comp Scrub


Workers Comp-inspired FDCPA lawsuits are growing aggressively, particularly in Florida. Only WebRecon can tell you who in your database may have a Florida Worker’s Comp case filed that could trigger litigation against you.

You can’t stop 100% of all lawsuits, but if you collect medical in Florida and you don’t have a process in place to show the court that you have a way to check every file against the Workers Comp database, then you have lost the case before it even begins.

Knock these suits out of the park with the Workers Comp Scrub.

Our Monthly Client Newsletter with The Litigant Hotsheet


Anyone can get our guest newsletter, but only clients get the version with the Litigant Hotsheet –  identifying the most active consumer Plaintiffs filing suit in jurisdictions around the country each month. Grab a coffee, shut your door and open your database to make sure you are doing all you can to stay safe.

Individual Vendor Consumer Complaint Search


Just like Vendor Monitoring, but without the monitoring. Search any business’s history of consumer complaints (Litigation, CFPB, BBB, State AG) with the click of a button! Great for on-the-fly gut checks of the companies you do business with.

Vendor Monitoring


Through vicarious liability, you can be held accountable for the bad behavior of your vendors. If they abuse consumers, for all intents and purposes, so do you. This is a big freakin’ deal!

But fear not, friend. WebRecon can track consumer litigation, CFPB, BBB and State AG Office complaints against the companies you do business with.

When a new complaint of any kind is filed against any of the companies you are monitoring, we’ll automatically push a report out to you with all of the publicly available details so you can react accordingly and if necessary, protect your interests.

API Access


We offer two powerful APIs to businesses that communicate with consumers:

  • The primary Litigious Consumer Scrub uses a combination of name, geography (and optionally SSN) to identify consumers who have filed lawsuits in the past.
  • The Litigious Consumer Phone Scrub pulls every phone number from our proprietary database of litigants and runs your phones against ours.

These APIs allow you to check your data against our database on the fly. Clients love using this to handle risk management without missing a beat in their daily workflow.