Blog/ Litigation Stats

Quick analysis: Everything was down last month.

Even CFPB complaints, which have been on a tear, dropped by 10% from the previous month. And FCRA, which has been bucking all trends to have its breakout year, dropped by 9.7%. Those two categories, incidentally, are the only two that are still up YTD. Just down for the month, along with everything else.

In other news, putative class actions were mixed last month with 19% of FDCPA, 22% of TCPA and 9.3% of FCRA lawsuits filed that way.

About 34% of all plaintiffs who filed suit last month had filed at least once before.

And finally, Chicago-area Atlas Consumer Law dominated the month as four of its attorneys took the top four spots for most active consumer attorney of the month – Ahmad Tayseer Sulaiman (43 consumers), Mohammed Omar Badwan (38 consumers), Nathan Charles Volheim (37 consumers), Taxiarchis Hatzidimitriadis (36 consumers). Granted, there is going to be overlap as multiple attorneys can be named as counsel in lawsuits. But still, it is a bit striking. New York attorney Craig B Sanders still has represented the most consumers YTD, with 220.

	Current Month:	Previous Month:		Previous Year:			Year to Date:	Year to Date Comp:
	Apr 01, 2018 Apr 30, 2018	Mar 01, 2018 Mar 31, 2018		Apr 01, 2017 Apr 30, 2017			Jan 01, 2018 Apr 30, 2018	Jan 01, 2017 Apr 30, 2017
BBB	1517	2313	-34.4%	5861	-74.1%		10649	23818	-55.3%
CFPB	4742	5270	-10.0%	4225	12.2%		19484	16651	17.0%
FDCPA	720	844	-14.7%	802	-10.2%		3167	3389	-6.6%
FCRA	335	371	-9.7%	266	25.9%		1436	1355	6.0%
TCPA	332	342	-2.9%	352	-5.7%		1286	1556	-17.4%

 

Complaint Statistics:

1517 consumers filed BBB complaints, 4742 consumers filed CFPB complaints, and about 1182 consumers filed lawsuits under consumer statutes from Apr 01, 2018 to Apr 30, 2018.

• 1517 BBB Complaints
• 4742 CFPB Complaints
• 720 FDCPA, 137 Class Action (19.0%)
• 332 TCPA, 73 Class Action (22.0%)
• 335 FCRA, 31 Class Action (9.3%)

Litigation Summary (scroll down for BBB and CFPB data):

• Of those cases, there were about 1182 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
• Of those plaintiffs, about 402, or (34%), had sued under consumer statutes before.
• Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 2062 lawsuits since 2001
• Actions were filed in 157 different US District Court branches.
• About 772 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

• 86 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
• 58 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court – Tampa
• 46 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles
• 44 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
• 37 Lawsuits: Florida Southern District Court – Fort Lauderdale
• 36 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
• 35 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
• 34 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Central Islip
• 33 Lawsuits: Nevada District Court – Las Vegas
• 28 Lawsuits: California Eastern District Court – Sacramento

The most active consumer attorneys were:

• Representing 43 Consumers: AHMAD TAYSEER SULAIMAN
• Representing 38 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN
• Representing 37 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
• Representing 36 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
• Representing 30 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
• Representing 23 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
• Representing 23 Consumers: ANTRANIG N GARIBIAN
• Representing 22 Consumers: ELLIOT GALE
• Representing 21 Consumers: OMAR TAYSEER SULAIMAN
• Representing 20 Consumers: DAVID SCOTT KLAIN

Statistics Year to Date:
4797 total lawsuits for 2018, including:

• 3167 FDCPA
• 1436 FCRA
• 1286 TCPA

Number of Unique Plaintiffs for 2018: 4844 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

• Representing 220 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
• Representing 176 Consumers: AHMAD TAYSEER SULAIMAN
• Representing 168 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN
• Representing 144 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
• Representing 131 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
• Representing 131 Consumers: THOMAS J CONNICK
• Representing 121 Consumers: ELLIOT GALE
• Representing 84 Consumers: CELETHA CHATMAN
• Representing 84 Consumers: MICHAEL JACOB WOOD
• Representing 81 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER

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BBB Complaint Statistics:

There were a total of 1517 BBB complaints against debt collectors and creditors from Apr 01, 2018 to Apr 30, 2018. That is down -34.4% from last month.

The categories of complaints filed were:

• 898 Billing/Collection Issues (59%)
• 539 Problems with Product/Service (36%)
• 35 Advertising/Sales Issues (2%)
• 22 Delivery Issues (1%)
• 18 (1%)
• 5 Guarantee/Warranty Issues (0%)

The dispositions of these complaints are:

• 1078 The Business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either (a) did not accept the response, OR (b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction. (71%)
• 281 The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction. (19%)
• 94 The business failed to respond to the dispute. (6%)
• 40 (3%)
• 13 BBB is unable to locate the business. (1%)
• 11 The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it. (1%)

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CFPB Complaint Statistics:

There were 4742 complaints filed against debt collectors from Apr 01, 2018 to Apr 30, 2018.

Total number of debt collectors complained about: 869

The types of debt behind the complaints were:

• 1414 Other debt (30%)
• 1115 Credit card debt (24%)
• 941 I do not know (20%)
• 725 Medical debt (15%)
• 144 Auto debt (3%)
• 124 Payday loan debt (3%)
• 113 Mortgage debt (2%)
• 85 Private student loan debt (2%)
• 81 Federal student loan debt (2%)

Here is a breakdown of complaints:

• 2092 Attempts to collect debt not owed (44%)
• 1225 Written notification about debt (26%)
• 504 Communication tactics (11%)
• 417 Took or threatened to take negative or legal action (9%)
• 385 False statements or representation (8%)
• 119 Threatened to contact someone or share information improperly (3%)

The top five subissues were:

• 1158 Debt is not yours (24%)
• 949 Didnt receive enough information to verify debt (20%)
• 484 Debt was paid (10%)
• 377 Debt was result of identity theft (8%)
• 308 Attempted to collect wrong amount (6%)

The top states complaints were filed from are:

• 610 Complaints: TX
• 485 Complaints: CA
• 467 Complaints: FL
• 297 Complaints: GA
• 284 Complaints: NY
• 191 Complaints: IL
• 174 Complaints: NJ
• 157 Complaints: NC
• 145 Complaints: PA
• 139 Complaints: MI

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

• 3717 Closed with explanation (78%)
• 578 Closed with non-monetary relief (12%)
• 303 In progress (6%)
• 112 Untimely response (2%)
• 32 Closed with monetary relief (1%)

This includes 4566 (96%) timely responses to complaints, and 176 (4%) untimely responses.

Quick analysis: Sooo…. do you remember in January when we told you that the 4925 CFPB complaints filed that month blew past the previous record of 4648 CFPB complaints filed in March 2017? Well, it has happened again with 5225 complaints filed in March 2018, eclipsing January’s record of 4925.

Beyond that, we saw an interesting inversion from recent litigation trends with FDCPA (+7.1%) and TCPA (+15.2%) up, and FCRA (-11.9%) down from the previous month. In spite of that, year-to-date trends on all three statutes are holding steady with FDCPA (-5.4%) and TCPA (20.8%) down, and FCRA (+1%) up, if only nominally.

In other news, putative class actions were mixed last month with 20.7% of FDCPA, 22.5% of TCPA and 4.6% of FCRA lawsuits filed that way.

About 34% of all plaintiffs who filed suit last month had filed at least once before.

And finally, New York attorney Craig B. Sanders retained the crown as the most active consumer attorney this month by representing 95(!) consumers in January and 195 so far year-to-date.

	Current Month:	Previous Month:		Previous Year:			Year to Date:	Year to Date Comp:
	Mar 01, 2018 Mar 31, 2018	Feb 01, 2018 Feb 28, 2018		Mar 01, 2017 Mar 31, 2017			Jan 01, 2018 Mar 31, 2018	Jan 01, 2017 Mar 31, 2017
BBB	2114	3157	-33.0%	6729	-68.6%		8646	17687	-51.1%
CFPB	5229	4486	16.6%	4648	12.5%		14689	12426	18.2%
FDCPA	845	789	7.1%	942	-10.3%		2448	2587	-5.4%
FCRA	371	421	-11.9%	407	-8.8%		1101	1090	1.0%
TCPA	342	297	15.2%	430	-20.5%		954	1204	-20.8%

 

Complaint Statistics:

2114 consumers filed BBB complaints, 5229 consumers filed CFPB complaints, and about 1352 consumers filed lawsuits under consumer statutes from Mar 01, 2018 to Mar 31, 2018.

• 2114 BBB Complaints
• 5229 CFPB Complaints
• 845 FDCPA, 175 Class Action (20.7%)
• 342 TCPA, 77 Class Action (22.5%)
• 371 FCRA, 17 Class Action (4.6%)

Litigation Summary (scroll down for BBB and CFPB data):

• Of those cases, there were about 1352 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
• Of those plaintiffs, about 460, or (34%), had sued under consumer statutes before.
• Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 4973 lawsuits since 2001
• Actions were filed in 154 different US District Court branches.
• About 792 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

• 119 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
• 70 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Central Islip
• 65 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
• 52 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court – Tampa
• 50 Lawsuits: California Eastern District Court – Sacramento
• 45 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles
• 44 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
• 34 Lawsuits: Nevada District Court – Las Vegas
• 25 Lawsuits: Wisconsin Eastern District Court – Milwaukee
• 25 Lawsuits: New York Southern District Court – Foley Square

The most active consumer attorneys were:

• Representing 95 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
• Representing 58 Consumers: AHMAD TAYSEER SULAIMAN
• Representing 50 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN
• Representing 42 Consumers: ELLIOT GALE
• Representing 36 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
• Representing 34 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
• Representing 31 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
• Representing 28 Consumers: TODD M FRIEDMAN
• Representing 24 Consumers: SARAH MARGARET BARNES
• Representing 24 Consumers: MICHAEL JACOB WOOD

Statistics Year to Date:
3639 total lawsuits for 2018, including:

• 2448 FDCPA
• 1101 FCRA
• 954 TCPA

Number of Unique Plaintiffs for 2018: 3741 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

• Representing 197 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
• Representing 133 Consumers: AHMAD TAYSEER SULAIMAN
• Representing 130 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN
• Representing 129 Consumers: THOMAS J CONNICK
• Representing 107 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
• Representing 99 Consumers: ELLIOT GALE
• Representing 95 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
• Representing 75 Consumers: SARAH MARGARET BARNES
• Representing 75 Consumers: MICHAEL JACOB WOOD
• Representing 75 Consumers: CELETHA CHATMAN

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BBB Complaint Statistics:

There were a total of 2114 BBB complaints against debt collectors and creditors from Mar 01, 2018 to Mar 31, 2018. That is down -33.0% from last month.

The categories of complaints filed were:

• 1255 Billing/Collection Issues (59%)
• 726 Problems with Product/Service (34%)
• 59 Advertising/Sales Issues (3%)
• 36 Delivery Issues (2%)
• 28 (1%)
• 10 Guarantee/Warranty Issues (0%)

The dispositions of these complaints are:

• 1451 The Business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either (a) did not accept the response, OR (b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction. (69%)
• 487 The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction. (23%)
• 150 The business failed to respond to the dispute. (7%)
• 15 The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it. (1%)
• 10 BBB is unable to locate the business. (0%)
• 1 (0%)

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

There were 5229 complaints filed against debt collectors from Mar 01, 2018 to Mar 31, 2018.

Total number of debt collectors complained about: 934

The types of debt behind the complaints were:

• 1627 Other debt (31%)
• 1079 I do not know (21%)
• 1075 Credit card debt (21%)
• 885 Medical debt (17%)
• 162 Payday loan debt (3%)
• 145 Auto debt (3%)
• 109 Mortgage debt (2%)
• 81 Federal student loan debt (2%)
• 66 Private student loan debt (1%)

Here is a breakdown of complaints:

• 2259 Attempts to collect debt not owed (43%)
• 1330 Written notification about debt (25%)
• 584 Communication tactics (11%)
• 487 Took or threatened to take negative or legal action (9%)
• 426 False statements or representation (8%)
• 143 Threatened to contact someone or share information improperly (3%)

The top five subissues were:

• 1306 Debt is not yours (25%)
• 962 Didnt receive enough information to verify debt (18%)
• 510 Debt was paid (10%)
• 361 Debt was result of identity theft (7%)
• 354 Attempted to collect wrong amount (7%)

The top states complaints were filed from are:

• 660 Complaints: TX
• 621 Complaints: CA
• 525 Complaints: FL
• 353 Complaints: GA
• 316 Complaints: NY
• 230 Complaints: IL
• 176 Complaints: NJ
• 175 Complaints: OH
• 148 Complaints: PA
• 146 Complaints:

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

• 4182 Closed with explanation (80%)
• 648 Closed with non-monetary relief (12%)
• 231 In progress (4%)
• 139 Untimely response (3%)
• 29 Closed with monetary relief (1%)

This includes 4968 (95%) timely responses to complaints, and 261 (5%) untimely responses.

Quick analysis: Is FCRA the New TCPA?

Prelude…vcra big picture.

In a month where the numbers of every other type of complaint was a bit depressed, FCRA has continued its remarkable growth streak, with a strong 422 plaintiffs represented in February invoking the statute.

FCRA used to be the ugly stepchild to TCPA, the statute that almost always had the the slightly better numbers and momentum. That trend appears to have subsided. Notice how the red lines (TCPA) used to be more prominent in the grid below, and how it is now the blue lines (FCRA) creating the most waves.

CFPB complaints, while down from January’s extraordinary number of 4962, is still several hundred complaints above the last 12-months average of 4162 with 4439 complaints for the month of February.

Back to consumer litigation…

Putative class actions were higher than average last month with 23% of FDCPA, 22.3% of TCPA and 36.3% of FCRA lawsuits filed that way.

About 33% of all plaintiffs who filed suit last month had filed at least once before.

And finally, Ohio attorney Thomas J. Connick broke out of obscurity and took the crown as the most active consumer attorney this month by representing 129 consumers in a mega-FCRA case . Not uncoincidentally, he also has the most consumers represented year-to-date, also 129.

	Current Month:	Previous Month:		Previous Year:			Year to Date:	Year to Date Comp:
	Feb 01, 2018 Feb 28, 2018	Jan 01, 2018 Jan 31, 2018		Feb 01, 2017 Feb 28, 2017			Jan 01, 2018 Feb 28, 2018	Jan 01, 2017 Feb 28, 2017
BBB	2458	2752	-10.7%	5195	-52.7%		5210	10042	-48.1%
CFPB	4439	4962	-10.5%	4010	10.7%		9401	7778	20.9%
FDCPA	788	815	-3.3%	829	-4.9%		1603	1650	-2.8%
FCRA	422	309	36.6%	265	59.2%		731	683	7.0%
TCPA	296	315	-6.0%	376	-21.3%		611	777	-21.4%

 

Complaint Statistics:

2458 consumers filed BBB complaints, 4439 consumers filed CFPB complaints, and about 1302 consumers filed lawsuits under consumer statutes from Feb 01, 2018 to Feb 28, 2018.

• 2458 BBB Complaints
• 4439 CFPB Complaints
• 788 FDCPA, 181 Class Action (23.0%)
• 296 TCPA, 66 Class Action (22.3%)
• 422 FCRA, 153 Class Action (36.3%)

Litigation Summary (scroll down for BBB and CFPB data):

• Of those cases, there were about 1302 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
• Of those plaintiffs, about 435, or (33%), had sued under consumer statutes before.
• Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 4069 lawsuits since 2001
• Actions were filed in 147 different US District Court branches.
• About 744 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

• 121 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
• 54 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Central Islip
• 50 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
• 48 Lawsuits: California Eastern District Court – Sacramento
• 42 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
• 36 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
• 33 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court – Tampa
• 29 Lawsuits: Indiana Southern District Court – Indianapolis
• 28 Lawsuits: Florida Southern District Court – Fort Lauderdale
• 28 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles

The most active consumer attorneys were:

• Representing 129 Consumers: THOMAS J CONNICK
• Representing 52 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
• Representing 42 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN
• Representing 38 Consumers: AHMAD TAYSEER SULAIMAN
• Representing 38 Consumers: ELLIOT GALE
• Representing 29 Consumers: MICHAEL JACOB WOOD
• Representing 29 Consumers: CELETHA CHATMAN
• Representing 29 Consumers: SARAH MARGARET BARNES
• Representing 29 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
• Representing 25 Consumers: JOHN D BLYTHIN

Statistics Year to Date:
2351 total lawsuits for 2018, including:

• 1603 FDCPA
• 731 FCRA
• 611 TCPA

Number of Unique Plaintiffs for 2018: 2475 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

• Representing 129 Consumers: THOMAS J CONNICK
• Representing 103 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
• Representing 80 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN
• Representing 75 Consumers: AHMAD TAYSEER SULAIMAN
• Representing 71 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
• Representing 61 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
• Representing 57 Consumers: ELLIOT GALE
• Representing 51 Consumers: CELETHA CHATMAN
• Representing 51 Consumers: SARAH MARGARET BARNES
• Representing 51 Consumers: MARK A ELDRIDGE

——————————————————————————————————-
BBB Complaint Statistics:

There were a total of 2458 BBB complaints against debt collectors and creditors from Feb 01, 2018 to Feb 28, 2018. That is down -10.7% from last month.

The categories of complaints filed were:

• 1591 Billing/Collection Issues (65%)
• 725 Problems with Product/Service (29%)
• 66 Advertising/Sales Issues (3%)
• 42 Delivery Issues (2%)
• 21 (1%)
• 13 Guarantee/Warranty Issues (1%)

The dispositions of these complaints are:

• 1633 The Business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either (a) did not accept the response, OR (b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction. (66%)
• 593 The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction. (24%)
• 175 The business failed to respond to the dispute. (7%)
• 26 The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it. (1%)
• 17 BBB is unable to locate the business. (1%)
• 14 (1%)

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

There were 4439 complaints filed against debt collectors from Feb 01, 2018 to Feb 28, 2018.

Total number of debt collectors complained about: 870

The types of debt behind the complaints were:

• 1401 Other debt (32%)
• 965 I do not know (22%)
• 831 Credit card debt (19%)
• 708 Medical debt (16%)
• 140 Payday loan debt (3%)
• 125 Auto debt (3%)
• 100 Mortgage debt (2%)
• 92 Federal student loan debt (2%)
• 77 Private student loan debt (2%)

Here is a breakdown of complaints:

• 1857 Attempts to collect debt not owed (42%)
• 1129 Written notification about debt (25%)
• 541 Communication tactics (12%)
• 411 False statements or representation (9%)
• 396 Took or threatened to take negative or legal action (9%)
• 105 Threatened to contact someone or share information improperly (2%)

The top five subissues were:

• 1034 Debt is not yours (23%)
• 814 Didnt receive enough information to verify debt (18%)
• 448 Debt was paid (10%)
• 319 Attempted to collect wrong amount (7%)
• 314 Frequent or repeated calls (7%)

The top states complaints were filed from are:

• 1036 Complaints:
• 411 Complaints: FL
• 384 Complaints: CA
• 368 Complaints: TX
• 201 Complaints: GA
• 186 Complaints: NY
• 153 Complaints: IL
• 128 Complaints: NC
• 111 Complaints: NJ
• 102 Complaints: MI

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

• 3450 Closed with explanation (78%)
• 564 Closed with non-monetary relief (13%)
• 253 In progress (6%)
• 147 Untimely response (3%)
• 24 Closed with monetary relief (1%)
• 1 (0%)

This includes 4202 (95%) timely responses to complaints, and 237 (5%) untimely responses.

Quick analysis: 2018 started with a bit of a bang. FDCPA complaints were at their highest since Aug 2017, FCRA and TCPA were both up from last month and even with all of the drama around CFPB leadership, CFPB complaints had (by far) their highest month ever with 4925 complaints. The next highest months were August 2017 with 4650 and March 2017 with 4648.

As CFPB and BBB data takes a bit longer to settle than litigation data, we delayed reporting full year numbers last month to give the best data we could. Here are your full year reports for 2017:

Back to litigation…

Putative class actions were mixed last month with 23.8% of FDCPA, 19.4% of TCPA and 8.4% of FCRA lawsuits filed that way.

About 35% of all plaintiffs who filed suit last month had filed at least once before.

And finally, New York attorney Craig B. Sanders retained the crown as the most active consumer attorney this month by representing 51 consumers in January (and, of course, year-to-date).

	Current Month:	Previous Month:		Previous Year:			Year to Date:	Year to Date Comp:
	Jan 01, 2018 Jan 31, 2018	Dec 01, 2017 Dec 31, 2017		Jan 01, 2017 Jan 31, 2017			Jan 01, 2018 Jan 31, 2018	Jan 01, 2017 Jan 31, 2017
BBB	1608	2667	-39.7%	3993	-59.7%		1608	3993	-59.7%
CFPB	4925	3926	25.4%	3768	30.7%		4925	3768	30.7%
FDCPA	815	720	13.2%	821	-0.7%		815	821	-0.7%
FCRA	309	299	3.3%	418	-26.1%		309	418	-26.1%
TCPA	315	285	10.5%	401	-21.4%		315	401	-21.4%

 

Complaint Statistics:

1608 consumers filed BBB complaints, 4925 consumers filed CFPB complaints, and about 1224 consumers filed lawsuits under consumer statutes from Jan 01, 2018 to Jan 31, 2018.

• 1608 BBB Complaints
• 4925 CFPB Complaints
• 815 FDCPA, 194 Class Action (23.8%)
• 315 TCPA, 61 Class Action (19.4%)
• 309 FCRA, 26 Class Action (8.4%)

Litigation Summary (scroll down for BBB and CFPB data):

• Of those cases, there were about 1224 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
• Of those plaintiffs, about 431, or (35%), had sued under consumer statutes before.
• Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 3677 lawsuits since 2001
• Actions were filed in 163 different US District Court branches.
• About 706 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

• 99 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
• 65 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Central Islip
• 55 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
• 44 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court – Tampa
• 38 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
• 34 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
• 29 Lawsuits: Wisconsin Eastern District Court – Milwaukee
• 28 Lawsuits: Michigan Eastern District Court – Detroit
• 28 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles
• 28 Lawsuits: Indiana Southern District Court – Indianapolis

The most active consumer attorneys were:

• Representing 51 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
• Representing 42 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
• Representing 38 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN
• Representing 37 Consumers: AHMAD TAYSEER SULAIMAN
• Representing 37 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
• Representing 27 Consumers: MARK A ELDRIDGE
• Representing 22 Consumers: SARAH MARGARET BARNES
• Representing 22 Consumers: MICHAEL JACOB WOOD
• Representing 22 Consumers: AHMAD T SULAIMAN
• Representing 22 Consumers: CELETHA CHATMAN

Statistics Year to Date:
1181 total lawsuits for 2018, including:

• 815 FDCPA
• 309 FCRA
• 315 TCPA

Number of Unique Plaintiffs for 2018: 1224 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

• Representing 51 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
• Representing 42 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
• Representing 38 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN
• Representing 37 Consumers: AHMAD TAYSEER SULAIMAN
• Representing 37 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
• Representing 27 Consumers: MARK A ELDRIDGE
• Representing 22 Consumers: SARAH MARGARET BARNES
• Representing 22 Consumers: MICHAEL JACOB WOOD
• Representing 22 Consumers: AHMAD T SULAIMAN
• Representing 22 Consumers: CELETHA CHATMAN

——————————————————————————————————-
BBB Complaint Statistics:

There were a total of 1608 BBB complaints against debt collectors and creditors from Jan 01, 2018 to Jan 31, 2018. That is down -39.7% from last month.

The categories of complaints filed were:

• 867 Billing/Collection Issues (54%)
• 396 Problems with Product/Service (25%)
• 196 Billing / Collection Issues (12%)
• 61 Problems with Product / Service (4%)
• 30 Advertising/Sales Issues (2%)
• 21 Delivery Issues (1%)
• 4 Advertising / Sales Issues (0%)
• 2 Guarantee/Warranty Issues (0%)

The dispositions of these complaints are:

• 969 The Business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either (a) did not accept the response, OR (b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction. (60%)
• 401 The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction. (25%)
• 170 The business failed to respond to the dispute. (11%)
• 27 BBB is unable to locate the business. (2%)
• 17 The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it. (1%)
• 10 The Business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer did not accept the response, OR BBB has not heard back from the consumer as to their satisfaction. (1%)

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

There were 4925 complaints filed against debt collectors from Jan 01, 2018 to Jan 31, 2018.

Total number of debt collectors complained about: 895

The types of debt behind the complaints were:

• 1589 Other debt (32%)
• 974 I do not know (20%)
• 913 Credit card debt (19%)
• 885 Medical debt (18%)
• 161 Payday loan debt (3%)
• 132 Auto debt (3%)
• 102 Mortgage debt (2%)
• 90 Private student loan debt (2%)
• 79 Federal student loan debt (2%)

Here is a breakdown of complaints:

• 2045 Attempts to collect debt not owed (42%)
• 1283 Written notification about debt (26%)
• 555 Communication tactics (11%)
• 487 Took or threatened to take negative or legal action (10%)
• 434 False statements or representation (9%)
• 121 Threatened to contact someone or share information improperly (2%)

The top five subissues were:

• 1175 Debt is not yours (24%)
• 916 Didnt receive enough information to verify debt (19%)
• 452 Debt was paid (9%)
• 373 Attempted to collect wrong amount (8%)
• 329 Debt was result of identity theft (7%)

The top states complaints were filed from are:

• 615 Complaints: FL
• 580 Complaints: TX
• 526 Complaints: CA
• 306 Complaints: GA
• 288 Complaints: NY
• 202 Complaints: NC
• 189 Complaints: NJ
• 179 Complaints: IL
• 140 Complaints: OH
• 137 Complaints: PA

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

• 3786 Closed with explanation (77%)
• 578 Closed with non-monetary relief (12%)
• 374 In progress (8%)
• 163 Untimely response (3%)
• 24 Closed with monetary relief (0%)

This includes 4666 (95%) timely responses to complaints, and 259 (5%) untimely responses.

Quick analysis: Well, it’s done. The year 2017 ended on a bit of a whimper, with FDCPA litigation down -5.8% and TCPA (shockingly) down -9.3%. This is TCPA’s first year-over-year decline since TCPA lawsuits became more than a novelty in the late-2000’s. Only FCRA posted an increase, up +9.9% over 2016.

Here are year-over-year litigation numbers for FDCPA, FCRA and TCPA from (essentially) the beginning of time.

CFPB complaints ended the year up a strong +18.5% over 2016, though that may still tick up a bit as more complaints come through the portal. BBB complaints are nominally up over last year, +1.3%, though we do expect that number to rise a bit as well over the next few weeks. Because of the slower schedules for these two categories, full year-over-year reports will come next month.

Back to December…

For the month of December, everything was down except for CFPB complaints, though again BBB will likely add quite a bit of volume over the next few weeks and turn into a positive. FDCPA, FCRA and TCPA were all down from November (-9%, -14.3% and -18.01%, respectively)

Putative class actions were mixed last month with 23.6% of FDCPA, 22.1% of TCPA and 6% of FCRA lawsuits filed that way.

About 36% of all plaintiffs who filed suit last month had filed at least once before.

And finally, New York attorney Craig B. Sanders retained the crown as the most active consumer attorney this month by representing 81 consumers in December and for representing the most consumers year-to-date (621).

	Current Month:	Previous Month:		Previous Year:			Year to Date:	Year to Date Comp:
	Dec 01, 2017 Dec 31, 2017	Nov 01, 2017 Nov 30, 2017		Dec 01, 2016 Dec 31, 2016			Jan 01, 2017 Dec 31, 2017	Jan 01, 2016 Dec 31, 2016
BBB	2240	3373	-33.6%	3693	-39.3%		47832	47196	1.3%
CFPB	3900	3600	8.3%	3717	4.9%		48692	41100	18.5%
FDCPA	720	791	-9.0%	782	-7.9%		9784	10386	-5.8%
FCRA	299	349	-14.3%	280	6.8%		4346	3954	9.9%
TCPA	285	348	-18.1%	359	-20.6%		4392	4840	-9.3%

 

Complaint Statistics:

2240 consumers filed BBB complaints, 3900 consumers filed CFPB complaints, and about 1126 consumers filed lawsuits under consumer statutes from Dec 01, 2017 to Dec 31, 2017.

• 2240 BBB Complaints
• 3900 CFPB Complaints
• 720 FDCPA, 170 Class Action (23.6%)
• 285 TCPA, 63 Class Action (22.1%)
• 299 FCRA, 18 Class Action (6.0%)

Litigation Summary (scroll down for BBB and CFPB data):

• Of those cases, there were about 1126 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
• Of those plaintiffs, about 400, or (36%), had sued under consumer statutes before.
• Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 3369 lawsuits since 2001
• Actions were filed in 155 different US District Court branches.
• About 792 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

• 79 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Central Islip
• 77 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
• 69 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
• 48 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
• 46 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court – Tampa
• 41 Lawsuits: Michigan Eastern District Court – Detroit
• 37 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
• 30 Lawsuits: New Jersey District Court – Newark
• 29 Lawsuits: Nevada District Court – Las Vegas
• 23 Lawsuits: California Southern District Court – San Diego

The most active consumer attorneys were:

• Representing 81 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
• Representing 38 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
• Representing 37 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
• Representing 27 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
• Representing 25 Consumers: AHMAD T SULAIMAN
• Representing 23 Consumers: DANIEL A EDELMAN
• Representing 19 Consumers: DAVID M BARSHAY
• Representing 19 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN
• Representing 18 Consumers: AHMAD TAYSEER SULAIMAN
• Representing 18 Consumers: WILLIAM PEERCE HOWARD

Statistics Year to Date:
15409 total lawsuits for 2017, including:

• 9784 FDCPA
• 4346 FCRA
• 4392 TCPA

Number of Unique Plaintiffs for 2017: 14421 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

• Representing 621 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
• Representing 441 Consumers: AHMAD TAYSEER SULAIMAN
• Representing 397 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN
• Representing 344 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
• Representing 342 Consumers: MATTHEW THOMAS BERRY
• Representing 336 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
• Representing 327 Consumers: TODD M FRIEDMAN
• Representing 299 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
• Representing 261 Consumers: MICHAEL JACOB WOOD
• Representing 260 Consumers: CELETHA CHATMAN

——————————————————————————————————-
BBB Complaint Statistics:

There were a total of 2240 BBB complaints against debt collectors and creditors from Dec 01, 2017 to Dec 31, 2017. That is down -33.6% from last month.

The categories of complaints filed were:

• 1131 Billing/Collection Issues (50%)
• 790 Problems with Product/Service (35%)
• 139 Billing / Collection Issues (6%)
• 79 Advertising/Sales Issues (4%)
• 53 Delivery Issues (2%)
• 27 Problems with Product / Service (1%)
• 15 Guarantee/Warranty Issues (1%)
• 4 (0%)
• 2 Advertising / Sales Issues (0%)

The dispositions of these complaints are:

• 774 The Business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer did not accept the response, OR BBB has not heard back from the consumer as to their satisfaction. (35%)
• 698 The Business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either (a) did not accept the response, OR (b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction. (31%)
• 393 The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction. (18%)
• 218 (10%)
• 126 The business failed to respond to the dispute. (6%)
• 19 BBB is unable to locate the business. (1%)
• 12 The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it. (1%)

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

There were 3900 complaints filed against debt collectors from Dec 01, 2017 to Dec 31, 2017.

Total number of debt collectors complained about: 844

The types of debt behind the complaints were:

• 1268 Other debt (33%)
• 741 I do not know (19%)
• 709 Credit card debt (18%)
• 680 Medical debt (17%)
• 143 Payday loan debt (4%)
• 122 Mortgage debt (3%)
• 113 Auto debt (3%)
• 67 Private student loan debt (2%)
• 57 Federal student loan debt (1%)

Here is a breakdown of complaints:

• 1529 Attempts to collect debt not owed (39%)
• 997 Written notification about debt (26%)
• 503 Communication tactics (13%)
• 431 Took or threatened to take negative or legal action (11%)
• 348 False statements or representation (9%)
• 92 Threatened to contact someone or share information improperly (2%)

The top five subissues were:

• 867 Debt is not yours (22%)
• 704 Didnt receive enough information to verify debt (18%)
• 346 Debt was paid (9%)
• 272 Didnt receive notice of right to dispute (7%)
• 262 Frequent or repeated calls (7%)

The top states complaints were filed from are:

• 439 Complaints: TX
• 435 Complaints: CA
• 420 Complaints: FL
• 241 Complaints: GA
• 234 Complaints: NY
• 157 Complaints: NC
• 153 Complaints: IL
• 118 Complaints: OH
• 117 Complaints: NJ
• 109 Complaints: PA

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

• 3036 Closed with explanation (78%)
• 407 Closed with non-monetary relief (10%)
• 307 In progress (8%)
• 126 Untimely response (3%)
• 24 Closed with monetary relief (1%)

This includes 3699 (95%) timely responses to complaints, and 201 (5%) untimely responses.

Quick analysis: In the month of November, every type of complaint that was down for the month is up for the year, and vice versa. Sort of like the Bizarro version of the monthly stats!

Other than that, all of the complaint types seem to be more or less sticking to the script for the month. BBB complaints dropped by -22.6% over October (though early results tend to be low so it may be adjusted next month), CFPB complaints were surprisingly down -12.1%, FDCPA and TCPA were up (+6% and +17.6, respectively) and FCRA complaints dropped by -4.9%.

No huge year-to-date surprises in November 2017… FDCPA and TCPA are down YTD (-5.7% and -8.6% respectively), FCRA is up (+9.9%), BBB complaints are running close to last year (+1.9%) and CFPB complaints hit it out of the park (+19.7%)

Back to litigation…

Putative class actions were mixed last month with 25% of FDCPA, 20.1% of TCPA and 9.5% of FCRA lawsuits filed that way.

A very high 38% of all plaintiffs who filed suit last month had filed at least once before, resuming the trend of increased serial litigators.

And finally, New York attorney Craig B. Sanders retained the crown as the most active consumer attorney this month by representing 91 consumers in November and for representing the most consumers year-to-date (540).

*** Be sure to check us out next month for the full year 2017 roundup. ***

	Current Month:	Previous Month:		Previous Year:			Year to Date:	Year to Date Comp:
	Nov 01, 2017 Nov 30, 2017	Oct 01, 2017 Oct 31, 2017		Nov 01, 2016 Nov 30, 2016			Jan 01, 2017 Nov 30, 2017	Jan 01, 2016 Nov 30, 2016
BBB	2242	2898	-22.6%	2857	-21.5%		35141	34480	1.9%
CFPB	3575	4067	-12.1%	3334	7.2%		44758	37383	19.7%
FDCPA	791	746	6.0%	739	7.0%		9072	9619	-5.7%
FCRA	349	367	-4.9%	390	-10.5%		4046	3680	9.9%
TCPA	348	296	17.6%	330	5.5%		4107	4491	-8.6%

 

Complaint Statistics:

2242 consumers filed BBB complaints, 3575 consumers filed CFPB complaints, and about 1275 consumers filed lawsuits under consumer statutes from Nov 01, 2017 to Nov 30, 2017.

• 2242 BBB Complaints
• 3575 CFPB Complaints
• 791 FDCPA, 198 Class Action (25.0%)
• 348 TCPA, 70 Class Action (20.1%)
• 349 FCRA, 33 Class Action (9.5%)

Litigation Summary (scroll down for BBB and CFPB data):

• Of those cases, there were about 1275 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
• Of those plaintiffs, about 486, or (38%), had sued under consumer statutes before.
• Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 2071 lawsuits since 2001
• Actions were filed in 170 different US District Court branches.
• About 743 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

• 117 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
• 98 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Central Islip
• 62 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
• 53 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court – Tampa
• 51 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
• 34 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
• 33 Lawsuits: Nevada District Court – Las Vegas
• 33 Lawsuits: Florida Southern District Court – Fort Lauderdale
• 32 Lawsuits: Indiana Southern District Court – Indianapolis
• 29 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles

The most active consumer attorneys were:

• Representing 91 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
• Representing 45 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN
• Representing 43 Consumers: AHMAD TAYSEER SULAIMAN
• Representing 42 Consumers: MICHAEL JACOB WOOD
• Representing 42 Consumers: CELETHA CHATMAN
• Representing 26 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
• Representing 26 Consumers: TODD M FRIEDMAN
• Representing 26 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
• Representing 22 Consumers: MATTHEW THOMAS BERRY
• Representing 21 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER

Statistics Year to Date:
14306 total lawsuits for 2017, including:

• 9072 FDCPA
• 4046 FCRA
• 4107 TCPA

Number of Unique Plaintiffs for 2017: 13471 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

• Representing 540 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
• Representing 423 Consumers: AHMAD TAYSEER SULAIMAN
• Representing 378 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN
• Representing 325 Consumers: MATTHEW THOMAS BERRY
• Representing 317 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
• Representing 311 Consumers: TODD M FRIEDMAN
• Representing 298 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
• Representing 262 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
• Representing 251 Consumers: MICHAEL JACOB WOOD
• Representing 250 Consumers: CELETHA CHATMAN

——————————————————————————————————-
BBB Complaint Statistics:

There were a total of 2242 BBB complaints against debt collectors and creditors from Nov 01, 2017 to Nov 30, 2017. That is down -22.6% from last month.

The categories of complaints filed were:

• 1131 Billing/Collection Issues (50%)
• 928 Problems with Product/Service (41%)
• 106 Advertising/Sales Issues (5%)
• 48 Delivery Issues (2%)
• 15 (1%)
• 14 Guarantee/Warranty Issues (1%)

The dispositions of these complaints are:

• 1390 The Business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer did not accept the response, OR BBB has not heard back from the consumer as to their satisfaction. (62%)
• 490 The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction. (22%)
• 212 (9%)
• 123 The business failed to respond to the dispute. (5%)
• 15 BBB is unable to locate the business. (1%)
• 12 The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it. (1%)

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

There were 3575 complaints filed against debt collectors from Nov 01, 2017 to Nov 30, 2017.

Total number of debt collectors complained about: 816

The types of debt behind the complaints were:

• 1135 Other debt (32%)
• 753 I do not know (21%)
• 649 Credit card debt (18%)
• 549 Medical debt (15%)
• 133 Auto debt (4%)
• 129 Payday loan debt (4%)
• 103 Mortgage debt (3%)
• 64 Private student loan debt (2%)
• 60 Federal student loan debt (2%)

Here is a breakdown of complaints:

• 1519 Attempts to collect debt not owed (42%)
• 818 Written notification about debt (23%)
• 489 Communication tactics (14%)
• 338 Took or threatened to take negative or legal action (9%)
• 324 False statements or representation (9%)
• 87 Threatened to contact someone or share information improperly (2%)

The top five subissues were:

• 882 Debt is not yours (25%)
• 623 Didnt receive enough information to verify debt (17%)
• 332 Debt was paid (9%)
• 280 Attempted to collect wrong amount (8%)
• 271 Frequent or repeated calls (8%)

The top states complaints were filed from are:

• 423 Complaints: TX
• 408 Complaints: CA
• 354 Complaints: FL
• 204 Complaints: GA
• 174 Complaints: NY
• 137 Complaints:
• 124 Complaints: NJ
• 124 Complaints: OH
• 119 Complaints: IL
• 112 Complaints: NC

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

• 2763 Closed with explanation (77%)
• 376 Closed with non-monetary relief (11%)
• 269 In progress (8%)
• 136 Untimely response (4%)
• 31 Closed with monetary relief (1%)

This includes 3357 (94%) timely responses to complaints, and 218 (6%) untimely responses.

Quick analysis: Yep. TCPA.

It looks like TCPA will end down from the previous year for the first time since, well, ever. Sitting at 3758 (at the end of Oct) with two months to go in 2017, it is really hard to see how TCPA makes up ground to surpass 2015’s record total of 4855 suits. With 1097 suits separating us from last year’s record and 2017’s average of 376 TCPA plaintiffs per month, it just doesn’t seem possible. We’ll see…

 

Beyond that, FDCPA had a rare “up” month, rising 3.3% over Sept but still down 6.8% from last year. And FCRA continues to be the star of 2017. Even though it was down by a lot (34.1%) from last month’s crazy high of 557, it is still 12.3% up over last year’s record high of 3291 for the first ten months of the year.

We are still getting a handle on the flow of BBB complaints so don’t read much into the wild swings month-to-month yet. October’s 2421 complaints is a solid number, and it is likely to go up a bit when all the data is in. For reference, Jan-Sept averaged 2930 complaints each month.

And finally, CFPB complaints continue their mad dash to a new record high, up 12.2% over last month and 20.5% over this time last year.

Back to litigation…

Putative class actions were sky high last month with 24.4% of FDCPA and 24.1% of TCPA class action lawsuits.  An insane 24% of FCRA lawsuits were filed.

About 32% of all plaintiffs who filed suit last month had filed at least once before.

And finally, New York attorney Craig B. Sanders took back the crown as the most active consumer attorney this month by representing 38 consumers in October and for representing the most consumers year-to-date (449).

	Current Month:	Previous Month:		Previous Year:			Year to Date:	Year to Date Comp:
	Oct 01, 2017 Oct 31, 2017	Sep 01, 2017 Sep 30, 2017		Oct 01, 2016 Oct 31, 2016			Jan 01, 2017 Oct 31, 2017	Jan 01, 2016 Oct 31, 2016
BBB	2421	3110	-22.2%	2592	-6.6%		29301	28032	4.5%
CFPB	4010	3573	12.2%	3619	10.8%		41044	34049	20.5%
FDCPA	746	722	3.3%	851	-12.3%		8279	8883	-6.8%
FCRA	367	557	-34.1%	359	2.2%		3696	3291	12.3%
TCPA	295	297	-0.7%	455	-35.2%		3758	4163	-9.7%

 

Complaint Statistics:

2421 consumers filed BBB complaints, 4010 consumers filed CFPB complaints, and about 1274 consumers filed lawsuits under consumer statutes from Oct 01, 2017 to Oct 31, 2017.

• 2421 BBB Complaints
• 4010 CFPB Complaints
• 746 FDCPA, 182 Class Action (24.4%)
• 295 TCPA, 71 Class Action (24.1%)
• 367 FCRA, 88 Class Action (24.0%)

Litigation Summary (scroll down for BBB and CFPB data):

• Of those cases, there were about 1274 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
• Of those plaintiffs, about 412, or (32%), had sued under consumer statutes before.
• Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 2397 lawsuits since 2001
• Actions were filed in 165 different US District Court branches.
• About 749 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

• 108 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
• 60 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
• 58 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court – Tampa
• 57 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
• 56 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Central Islip
• 40 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
• 37 Lawsuits: Nevada District Court – Las Vegas
• 36 Lawsuits: Michigan Eastern District Court – Detroit
• 35 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles
• 27 Lawsuits: Indiana Southern District Court – Indianapolis

The most active consumer attorneys were:

• Representing 38 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
• Representing 30 Consumers: JOHN W ADAMS
• Representing 30 Consumers: JOHN D BLYTHIN
• Representing 27 Consumers: AHMAD TAYSEER SULAIMAN
• Representing 26 Consumers: TODD M FRIEDMAN
• Representing 26 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
• Representing 23 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN
• Representing 22 Consumers: ADRIAN ROBERT BACON
• Representing 21 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
• Representing 21 Consumers: MARK A ELDRIDGE

Statistics Year to Date:
13039 total lawsuits for 2017, including:

• 8279 FDCPA
• 3696 FCRA
• 3758 TCPA

Number of Unique Plaintiffs for 2017: 12425 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

• Representing 449 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
• Representing 380 Consumers: AHMAD TAYSEER SULAIMAN
• Representing 333 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN
• Representing 303 Consumers: MATTHEW THOMAS BERRY
• Representing 296 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
• Representing 286 Consumers: TODD M FRIEDMAN
• Representing 272 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
• Representing 236 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
• Representing 209 Consumers: MICHAEL JACOB WOOD
• Representing 208 Consumers: CELETHA CHATMAN

——————————————————————————————————-
BBB Complaint Statistics:

There were a total of 2421 BBB complaints against debt collectors and creditors from Oct 01, 2017 to Oct 31, 2017. That is down -22.2% from last month.

The categories of complaints filed were:

• 1334 Billing/Collection Issues (55%)
• 917 Problems with Product/Service (38%)
• 98 Advertising/Sales Issues (4%)
• 46 Delivery Issues (2%)
• 18 Guarantee/Warranty Issues (1%)
• 8 (0%)

The dispositions of these complaints are:

• 1682 The Business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer did not accept the response, OR BBB has not heard back from the consumer as to their satisfaction. (69%)
• 524 The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction. (22%)
• 140 The business failed to respond to the dispute. (6%)
• 36 (1%)
• 23 BBB is unable to locate the business. (1%)
• 16 The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it. (1%)

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

There were 4010 complaints filed against debt collectors from Oct 01, 2017 to Oct 31, 2017.

Total number of debt collectors complained about: 838

The types of debt behind the complaints were:

• 1292 Other debt (32%)
• 800 I do not know (20%)
• 703 Medical debt (18%)
• 696 Credit card debt (17%)
• 132 Auto debt (3%)
• 118 Mortgage debt (3%)
• 117 Payday loan debt (3%)
• 89 Private student loan debt (2%)
• 63 Federal student loan debt (2%)

Here is a breakdown of complaints:

• 1625 Attempts to collect debt not owed (41%)
• 1019 Written notification about debt (25%)
• 491 Communication tactics (12%)
• 394 Took or threatened to take negative or legal action (10%)
• 378 False statements or representation (9%)
• 103 Threatened to contact someone or share information improperly (3%)

The top five subissues were:

• 925 Debt is not yours (23%)
• 759 Didnt receive enough information to verify debt (19%)
• 368 Debt was paid (9%)
• 305 Attempted to collect wrong amount (8%)
• 258 Frequent or repeated calls (6%)

The top states complaints were filed from are:

• 486 Complaints: CA
• 421 Complaints: TX
• 408 Complaints: FL
• 259 Complaints: GA
• 237 Complaints: NY
• 151 Complaints: NC
• 134 Complaints: IL
• 128 Complaints: NJ
• 114 Complaints: PA
• 110 Complaints: OH

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

• 3154 Closed with explanation (79%)
• 346 In progress (9%)
• 342 Closed with non-monetary relief (9%)
• 137 Untimely response (3%)
• 31 Closed with monetary relief (1%)

This includes 3803 (95%) timely responses to complaints, and 207 (5%) untimely responses.

Quick analysis:

In another month where just about every type of consumer complaint was down, FCRA broke out with an almost 60% increase over the prior month.

Why? Who knows. But FCRA alone is on a bit of a tear this year, up 13.5% YTD while FDCPA and TCPA(!) are both down over 6% YTD.

FCRA’s increase keeps it in line with the aggressive growth in recent years. However, for those of you who have been watching this data for a while, it should be somewhat surprising to hear TCPA remains down. Without a significant change in plaintiff filing behavior, we are actually on track to see TCPA filings drop from the previous year for the first time since, well, since the start of TCPA litigation.

Here is a month-by-month look at litigation so far in 2017.

In CFPB news, while it is still historically high, CFPB complaints had their slowest month of the year with *only* 3239 complaints filed. CFPB complaints are still more than 20% YTD and are certainly going to set a new record when the year is up.

And in BBB news, we spoke too soon last month. Once the numbers shook out, August BBB complaints against debt collectors weren’t only *not* way down from the previous month, but they had actually set a record for the most complaints ever logged in a month (1859) which topped the previous record set the month before (July, with 1798). (oops…). In September, the total was almost certain to lose momentum, and it did, dropping to 1466 complaints.

Here is a month-by-month look at CFPB & BBB complaints so far in 2017.

Back to litigation…

Putative class actions took an interesting twist last month with 23.7% of FDCPA, 18% of TCPA and an insane 44.1% of FCRA lawsuits filed that way.

About 31% of all plaintiffs who filed suit last month had filed at least once before, an historically low number (it is usually 33-36%).

And finally, Chicago attorney Celetha Chatman takes the crown for the first time as the most active consumer attorney this month by representing of 31 consumers in September. New York attorney Craig B. Sanders retains it for representing the most consumers year-to-date (411).

 

September 2017 Stats:

	Current Month:	Previous Month:		Previous Year:			Year to Date:	Year to Date Comp:
	Sep 01, 2017 Sep 30, 2017	Aug 01, 2017 Aug 31, 2017		Sep 01, 2016 Sep 30, 2016			Jan 01, 2017 Sep 30, 2017	Jan 01, 2016 Sep 30, 2016
BBB	1466	1859	-21.1%	1191	23.1%		13240	11878	11.5%
CFPB	3239	4585	-29.4%	3593	-9.9%		36570	30430	20.2%
FDCPA	716	870	-17.7%	931	-23.1%		7527	8032	-6.3%
FCRA	556	351	58.4%	285	95.1%		3328	2932	13.5%
TCPA	294	374	-21.4%	447	-34.2%		3460	3708	-6.7%

 

Complaint Statistics:

1466 consumers filed BBB complaints, 3239 consumers filed CFPB complaints, and about 1407 consumers filed lawsuits under consumer statutes from Sep 01, 2017 to Sep 30, 2017.

• 1466 BBB Complaints
• 3239 CFPB Complaints
• 716 FDCPA, 170 Class Action (23.7%)
• 294 TCPA, 53 Class Action (18.0%)
• 556 FCRA, 245 Class Action (44.1%)

Litigation Summary (scroll down for BBB and CFPB data):

• Of those cases, there were about 1407 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
• Of those plaintiffs, about 435, or (31%), had sued under consumer statutes before.
• Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 5256 lawsuits since 2001
• Actions were filed in 172 different US District Court branches.
• About 741 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

• 93 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
• 84 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
• 81 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
• 41 Lawsuits: Indiana Southern District Court – Indianapolis
• 39 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles
• 35 Lawsuits: California Southern District Court – San Diego
• 34 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court – Tampa
• 34 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Central Islip
• 31 Lawsuits: Nevada District Court – Las Vegas
• 28 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia

The most active consumer attorneys were:

• Representing 31 Consumers: CELETHA CHATMAN
• Representing 30 Consumers: MICHAEL JACOB WOOD
• Representing 27 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
• Representing 26 Consumers: MATTHEW THOMAS BERRY
• Representing 26 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN
• Representing 26 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
• Representing 25 Consumers: AHMAD TAYSEER SULAIMAN
• Representing 23 Consumers: JOHN THOMAS STEINKAMP
• Representing 21 Consumers: ELLIOT WAYNE GALE
• Representing 21 Consumers: TODD M FRIEDMAN

Statistics Year to Date:
11820 total lawsuits for 2017, including:

• 7527 FDCPA
• 3328 FCRA
• 3460 TCPA

Number of Unique Plaintiffs for 2017: 11315 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

• Representing 411 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
• Representing 349 Consumers: AHMAD TAYSEER SULAIMAN
• Representing 306 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN
• Representing 284 Consumers: MATTHEW THOMAS BERRY
• Representing 270 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
• Representing 260 Consumers: TODD M FRIEDMAN
• Representing 252 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
• Representing 215 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
• Representing 190 Consumers: MICHAEL JACOB WOOD
• Representing 189 Consumers: CELETHA CHATMAN

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BBB Complaint Statistics:

There were a total of 1466 BBB complaints against debt collectors and creditors from Sep 01, 2017 to Sep 30, 2017. That is down -21.1% from last month.

The categories of complaints filed were:

• 866 Billing/Collection Issues (59%)
• 559 Problems with Product/Service (38%)
• 31 Advertising/Sales Issues (2%)
• 9 Delivery Issues (1%)
• 1 Guarantee/Warranty Issues (0%)

The dispositions of these complaints are:

• 1106 The Business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer did not accept the response, OR BBB has not heard back from the consumer as to their satisfaction. (75%)
• 243 The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction. (17%)
• 88 The business failed to respond to the dispute. (6%)
• 16 BBB is unable to locate the business. (1%)
• 13 The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it. (1%)

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CFPB Complaint Statistics:

There were 3239 complaints filed against debt collectors from Sep 01, 2017 to Sep 30, 2017.

Total number of debt collectors complained about: 769

The types of debt behind the complaints were:

• 1128 Other debt (35%)
• 583 I do not know (18%)
• 563 Credit card debt (17%)
• 528 Medical debt (16%)
• 117 Payday loan debt (4%)
• 94 Auto debt (3%)
• 87 Federal student loan debt (3%)
• 84 Mortgage debt (3%)
• 55 Private student loan debt (2%)

Here is a breakdown of complaints:

• 1374 Attempts to collect debt not owed (42%)
• 727 Written notification about debt (22%)
• 396 Communication tactics (12%)
• 348 Took or threatened to take negative or legal action (11%)
• 303 False statements or representation (9%)
• 91 Threatened to contact someone or share information improperly (3%)

The top five subissues were:

• 807 Debt is not yours (25%)
• 549 Didnt receive enough information to verify debt (17%)
• 323 Debt was paid (10%)
• 256 Attempted to collect wrong amount (8%)
• 195 Frequent or repeated calls (6%)

The top states complaints were filed from are:

• 426 Complaints: CA
• 361 Complaints: TX
• 278 Complaints: FL
• 210 Complaints: GA
• 149 Complaints: NY
• 113 Complaints:
• 105 Complaints: OH
• 94 Complaints: IL
• 85 Complaints: NC
• 85 Complaints: PA

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

• 2560 Closed with explanation (79%)
• 293 In progress (9%)
• 271 Closed with non-monetary relief (8%)
• 89 Untimely response (3%)
• 26 Closed with monetary relief (1%)

This includes 3113 (96%) timely responses to complaints, and 126 (4%) untimely responses.

Quick analysis:

After July’s stunning drop in consumer litigation across the board, August saw an almost equally stunning course correction, bringing all three main statutes (FDCPA, TCPA, FCRA) to within 5% of where they were at the same time last year.

The big three statutes are all up double digits over the previous month (FDCPA +28.1%, TCPA +35.5% and FCRA +16.2%). CFPB complaints continue their 2017 streak up 7.5% over last month. Only our BBB complaint data was down significantly from last month. However, since BBB tracking is new for us it may be premature to accept these numbers as settled, so keep watch as we figure out the BBB trends.

Back to litigation…

Putative class actions remain relatively stable with 21% of FDCPA, 19.3% of TCPA and 9.7% of FCRA lawsuits filed that way.

About 34% of all plaintiffs who filed suit last month had filed at least once before.

And finally, New York attorney Craig B Sanders takes back the crown as the most active consumer attorney this month with representation of 51 consumers in August, and for representing the most consumers year-to-date (384).

	Current Month:	Previous Month:		Previous Year:			Year to Date:	Year to Date Comp:
	Aug 01, 2017 Aug 31, 2017	Jul 01, 2017 Jul 31, 2017		Aug 01, 2016 Aug 31, 2016			Jan 01, 2017 Aug 31, 2017	Jan 01, 2016 Aug 31, 2016
BBB	828	1305	-36.6%	1045	-20.8%		8191	8468	-3.3%
CFPB	4528	4211	7.5%	4287	5.6%		33243	26837	23.9%
FDCPA	870	679	28.1%	848	2.6%		6811	7101	-4.1%
FCRA	351	302	16.2%	383	-8.4%		2772	2647	4.7%
TCPA	374	276	35.5%	395	-5.3%		3166	3261	-2.9%

 

Complaint Statistics:

828 consumers filed BBB complaints, 4528 consumers filed CFPB complaints, and about 1380 consumers filed lawsuits under consumer statutes from Aug 01, 2017 to Aug 31, 2017.

• 828 BBB Complaints
• 4528 CFPB Complaints
• 870 FDCPA, 183 Class Action (21.0%)
• 374 TCPA, 72 Class Action (19.3%)
• 351 FCRA, 34 Class Action (9.7%)

Litigation Summary (scroll down for BBB and CFPB data):

• Of those cases, there were about 1380 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
• Of those plaintiffs, about 464, or (34%), had sued under consumer statutes before.
• Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 2961 lawsuits since 2001
• Actions were filed in 161 different US District Court branches.
• About 882 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

• 112 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
• 74 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
• 68 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court – Tampa
• 63 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
• 63 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Central Islip
• 41 Lawsuits: Indiana Southern District Court – Indianapolis
• 38 Lawsuits: Nevada District Court – Las Vegas
• 34 Lawsuits: Michigan Eastern District Court – Detroit
• 33 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles
• 33 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia

The most active consumer attorneys were:

• Representing 51 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
• Representing 36 Consumers: AHMAD TAYSEER SULAIMAN
• Representing 33 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN
• Representing 29 Consumers: MICHAEL JACOB WOOD
• Representing 29 Consumers: CELETHA CHATMAN
• Representing 26 Consumers: MATTHEW THOMAS BERRY
• Representing 26 Consumers: OCTAVIO GOMEZ
• Representing 21 Consumers: PAUL JONATHAN SIEG
• Representing 20 Consumers: MITCHELL L PASHKIN
• Representing 19 Consumers: JOHN THOMAS STEINKAMP

Statistics Year to Date:
10544 total lawsuits for 2017, including:

• 6811 FDCPA
• 2772 FCRA
• 3166 TCPA

Number of Unique Plaintiffs for 2017: 10073 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

• Representing 384 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
• Representing 324 Consumers: AHMAD TAYSEER SULAIMAN
• Representing 280 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN
• Representing 258 Consumers: MATTHEW THOMAS BERRY
• Representing 244 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
• Representing 239 Consumers: TODD M FRIEDMAN
• Representing 237 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
• Representing 201 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
• Representing 166 Consumers: PAUL JONATHAN SIEG
• Representing 160 Consumers: MICHAEL JACOB WOOD

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BBB Complaint Statistics:

There were a total of 828 BBB complaints against debt collectors and creditors from Aug 01, 2017 to Aug 31, 2017. That is down -36.6% from last month.

The categories of complaints filed were:

• 571 Billing/Collection Issues (69%)
• 232 Problems with Product/Service (28%)
• 9 Delivery Issues (1%)
• 9 Advertising/Sales Issues (1%)
• 4 (0%)
• 3 Guarantee/Warranty Issues (0%)

The dispositions of these complaints are:

• 587 The Business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer did not accept the response, OR BBB has not heard back from the consumer as to their satisfaction. (71%)
• 137 The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction. (17%)
• 89 The business failed to respond to the dispute. (11%)
• 9 BBB is unable to locate the business. (1%)
• 6 The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it. (1%)

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CFPB Complaint Statistics:

There were 4528 complaints filed against debt collectors from Aug 01, 2017 to Aug 31, 2017.

Total number of debt collectors complained about: 831

The types of debt behind the complaints were:

• 1609 Other debt (36%)
• 900 I do not know (20%)
• 758 Credit card debt (17%)
• 699 Medical debt (15%)
• 159 Payday loan debt (4%)
• 128 Auto debt (3%)
• 104 Mortgage debt (2%)
• 86 Private student loan debt (2%)
• 85 Federal student loan debt (2%)

Here is a breakdown of complaints:

• 1684 Attempts to collect debt not owed (37%)
• 1362 Written notification about debt (30%)
• 564 Communication tactics (12%)
• 435 Took or threatened to take negative or legal action (10%)
• 373 False statements or representation (8%)
• 110 Threatened to contact someone or share information improperly (2%)

The top five subissues were:

• 1062 Didnt receive enough information to verify debt (23%)
• 947 Debt is not yours (21%)
• 421 Debt was paid (9%)
• 307 Attempted to collect wrong amount (7%)
• 304 Frequent or repeated calls (7%)

The top states complaints were filed from are:

• 701 Complaints: CA
• 528 Complaints: FL
• 459 Complaints: TX
• 260 Complaints: GA
• 218 Complaints: NY
• 176 Complaints: IL
• 153 Complaints: NC
• 152 Complaints: NJ
• 141 Complaints:
• 130 Complaints: OH

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

• 3674 Closed with explanation (81%)
• 400 Closed with non-monetary relief (9%)
• 306 In progress (7%)
• 125 Untimely response (3%)
• 23 Closed with monetary relief (1%)

This includes 4306 (95%) timely responses to complaints, and 222 (5%) untimely responses.

Quick analysis: A Stunning Fall…

And we ain’t talking about the coming autumn. FDCPA, FCRA and TCPA litigation all tumbled in July, after two of the three fell in June as well. May was the last robust month for consumer litigation.

How much did the numbers fall? All three statutes were down between 20% and 40% over the previous month. In fact, we had to go all the way back to January 2015 to find the last time numbers were this low across the board.

 

After two straight months of slippage (with the exception of a slight increase in FCRA June over May), FDCPA is down more than 5% YTD, and TCPA down 2.6% YTD. Only FCRA posted a slight gain, up 6/10 of a point from 6.2% to 6.8% YTD.

NEW: We are excited to add BBB tracking to our monthly stats. BBB complaints against debt collectors and creditors rose quite a bit over the last month (+11.4%), but are only slightly up YTD from last year (+.9%).

CFPB complaints are continuing their 2017 rally, up 12.4% over last month and a whopping 26.9% over this time last year.

Back to litigation…

Putative class actions remain relatively stable with 21.5% of FDCPA, 15.6% of TCPA and 9.6% of FCRA lawsuits filed that way.

About 33% of all plaintiffs who filed suit last month had filed at least once before.

And finally, The Sulaiman Law Group overtakes our list of the most active consumer attorneys this month with a total of four entrants – Ahmad Sulaiman (40), Mohammed Badwan (34), Taxiarchis Hatzidimitriadis (28) and Nathan Volheim (28). New York attorney Craig B Sanders keeps the crown for representing the most consumers year-to-date (333).

 

	Current Month:	Previous Month:		Previous Year:			Year to Date:	Year to Date Comp:
	Jul 01, 2017 Jul 31, 2017	Jun 01, 2017 Jun 30, 2017		Jul 01, 2016 Jul 31, 2016			Jan 01, 2017 Jul 31, 2017	Jan 01, 2016 Jul 31, 2016
BBB	1141	1024	11.4%	833	37.0%		6584	6525	0.9%
CFPB	4144	3688	12.4%	3062	35.3%		28607	22550	26.9%
FDCPA	679	894	-24.0%	834	-18.6%		5936	6253	-5.1%
FCRA	302	386	-21.8%	271	11.4%		2419	2264	6.8%
TCPA	276	450	-38.7%	444	-37.8%		2792	2866	-2.6%

 

Complaint Statistics:

1141 consumers filed BBB complaints, 4144 consumers filed CFPB complaints, and about 1095 consumers filed lawsuits under consumer statutes from Jul 01, 2017 to Jul 31, 2017.

• 1141 BBB Complaints
• 4144 CFPB Complaints
• 679 FDCPA, 146 Class Action (21.5%)
• 276 TCPA, 43 Class Action (15.6%)
• 302 FCRA, 29 Class Action (9.6%)

Litigation Summary (scroll down for BBB and CFPB data):

• Of those cases, there were about 1095 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
• Of those plaintiffs, about 362, or (33%), had sued under consumer statutes before.
• Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 2155 lawsuits since 2001
• Actions were filed in 138 different US District Court branches.
• About 657 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

• 92 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
• 65 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
• 59 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
• 45 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court – Tampa
• 43 Lawsuits: Nevada District Court – Las Vegas
• 41 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Central Islip
• 38 Lawsuits: Indiana Southern District Court – Indianapolis
• 32 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
• 30 Lawsuits: California Southern District Court – San Diego
• 29 Lawsuits: California Northern District Court – San Jose

The most active consumer attorneys were:

• Representing 40 Consumers: AHMAD TAYSEER SULAIMAN
• Representing 34 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN
• Representing 31 Consumers: MATTHEW THOMAS BERRY
• Representing 30 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
• Representing 28 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
• Representing 28 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
• Representing 27 Consumers: ELLIOT WAYNE GALE
• Representing 22 Consumers: JOHN D BLYTHIN
• Representing 21 Consumers: SCOTT JOSEPH SAGARIA
• Representing 21 Consumers: SCOTT MATTHEW JOHNSON

Statistics Year to Date:
9217 total lawsuits for 2017, including:

• 5936 FDCPA
• 2419 FCRA
• 2792 TCPA

Number of Unique Plaintiffs for 2017: 8858 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

• Representing 333 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
• Representing 288 Consumers: AHMAD TAYSEER SULAIMAN
• Representing 247 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN
• Representing 232 Consumers: MATTHEW THOMAS BERRY
• Representing 225 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
• Representing 220 Consumers: TODD M FRIEDMAN
• Representing 218 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
• Representing 184 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
• Representing 145 Consumers: PAUL JONATHAN SIEG
• Representing 144 Consumers: ADRIAN ROBERT BACON

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BBB Complaint Statistics:

There were a total of 1141 BBB complaints against debt collectors and creditors from Jul 01, 2017 to Jul 31, 2017. That is up 11.4% from last month.

The categories of complaints filed were:

• 775 Billing/Collection Issues (68%)
• 343 Problems with Product/Service (30%)
• 18 Advertising/Sales Issues (2%)
• 3 Guarantee/Warranty Issues (0%)
• 2 Delivery Issues (0%)

The dispositions of these complaints are:

• 835 The Business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer did not accept the response, OR BBB has not heard back from the consumer as to their satisfaction. (73%)
• 222 The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction. (19%)
• 69 The business failed to respond to the dispute. (6%)
• 9 BBB is unable to locate the business. (1%)
• 6 The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it. (1%)

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CFPB Complaint Statistics:

There were 4144 complaints filed against debt collectors from Jul 01, 2017 to Jul 31, 2017.

Total number of debt collectors complained about: 832

The types of debt behind the complaints were:

• 1528 Other debt (37%)
• 717 I do not know (17%)
• 714 Credit card debt (17%)
• 664 Medical debt (16%)
• 144 Auto debt (3%)
• 131 Mortgage debt (3%)
• 113 Payday loan debt (3%)
• 72 Federal student loan debt (2%)
• 61 Private student loan debt (1%)

Here is a breakdown of complaints:

• 1633 Attempts to collect debt not owed (39%)
• 1214 Written notification about debt (29%)
• 402 False statements or representation (10%)
• 387 Communication tactics (9%)
• 373 Took or threatened to take negative or legal action (9%)
• 135 Threatened to contact someone or share information improperly (3%)

The top five subissues were:

• 974 Didnt receive enough information to verify debt (24%)
• 948 Debt is not yours (23%)
• 358 Debt was paid (9%)
• 330 Attempted to collect wrong amount (8%)
• 235 Debt was result of identity theft (6%)

The top states complaints were filed from are:

• 532 Complaints: CA
• 524 Complaints:
• 437 Complaints: FL
• 408 Complaints: TX
• 216 Complaints: GA
• 180 Complaints: NY
• 140 Complaints: NC
• 127 Complaints: OH
• 96 Complaints: TN
• 94 Complaints: PA

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

• 3330 Closed with explanation (80%)
• 344 Closed with non-monetary relief (8%)
• 302 In progress (7%)
• 134 Untimely response (3%)
• 34 Closed with monetary relief (1%)

This includes 3936 (95%) timely responses to complaints, and 208 (5%) untimely responses.