Blog/ Litigation Stats

Quick analysis: Overall, it was a fairly strong month for consumer complaints. FDCPA litigation had a rare rally, with an 8% increase at 947 lawsuits (over 875 the previous month, which itself was a strong number). It was not enough to decrease the YTD decline over 2013, but that is primarily because April 2013 was also a very strong month with 1140 lawsuits filed. FCRA was a bit down, but TCPA dominated the month by officially overtaking FCRA as the #2 category in raw numbers, after FDCPA.

CFPB complaints were also strong, tracking just a bit lower (1%) than the previous month. However, if the pattern holds with CFPB complaint, that number will continue to rise over the coming weeks and will probably turn into an increase by this time next month.

Litigation Statistics:

3582 consumers filed CFPB complaints against debt collectors and about 1257 consumers filed lawsuits under consumer statutes in April 2014. Here is an approximate breakdown:

• 3582 CFPB Complaints
• 947 FDCPA
• 235 TCPA
• 213 FCRA

Litigation Summary (scroll down for CFPB data):

• Of those cases, there were about 1257 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
• Of those plaintiffs, about 453, or (36%), had sued under consumer statutes before.
• Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 2289 lawsuits since 2001
• Actions were filed in 167 different US District Court branches.
• About 906 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

• 75 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
• 54 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
• 49 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
• 41 Lawsuits: Colorado District Court – Denver
• 39 Lawsuits: Indiana Southern District Court – Indianapolis
• 37 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Los Angeles
• 37 Lawsuits: California Southern District Court – San Diego
• 32 Lawsuits: Minnesota District Court – Dmn
• 25 Lawsuits: Florida Southern District Court – Miami
• 23 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court – Tampa

The most active consumer attorneys were:

• Representing 73 Consumers: Sergei Lemberg
• Representing 28 Consumers: John Thomas Steinkamp
• Representing 27 Consumers: David Michael Larson
• Representing 27 Consumers: Michael Anthony Eades
• Representing 23 Consumers: Robert Knox Tinkham
• Representing 19 Consumers: Mark D Mailman
• Representing 18 Consumers: David J Philipps
• Representing 18 Consumers: Angie K Robertson
• Representing 17 Consumers: Todd M Friedman
• Representing 16 Consumers: Mario Kris Kasalo

Statistics Year to Date:
4111 total lawsuits for 2014, including:

• 3294 FDCPA
• 908 FCRA
• 802 TCPA

Number of Unique Plaintiffs: 4339 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

• Representing 254 Consumers: Sergei Lemberg
• Representing 101 Consumers: David Michael Larson
• Representing 75 Consumers: John Thomas Steinkamp
• Representing 74 Consumers: Michael Anthony Eades
• Representing 65 Consumers: Todd M Friedman
• Representing 60 Consumers: Erikson M Davis
• Representing 56 Consumers: David J Philipps
• Representing 53 Consumers: Angie K Robertson
• Representing 52 Consumers: Adam Jon Fishbein
• Representing 46 Consumers: Joshua B Swigart

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CFPB Complaint Statistics:

There were 3582 complaints filed against debt collectors in April 2014.

Total number of debt collectors complained about: 741

The types of debt behind the complaints were:

• 994 Other (phone, health club, etc.) (27.7%)
• 748 Credit card (20.9%)
• 743 Unknown (20.7%)
• 347 Medical (9.7%)
• 304 Payday loan (8.5%)
• 172 Mortgage (4.8%)
• 104 Auto (2.9%)
• 91 Non-federal student loan (2.5%)
• 79 Federal student loan (2.2%)

Here is a breakdown of complaints:

• 1321 Cont’d attempts collect debt not owed (36.9%)
• 714 Communication tactics (19.9%)
• 637 Disclosure verification of debt (17.8%)
• 332 False statements or representation (9.3%)
• 300 Improper contact or sharing of info (8.4%)
• 278 Taking/threatening an illegal action (7.8%)

The top five subissues were:

• 802 Debt is not mine (22.4%)
• 458 Not given enough info to verify debt (12.8%)
• 440 Frequent or repeated calls (12.3%)
• 392 Debt was paid (10.9%)
• 256 Attempted to collect wrong amount (7.1%)

The top states complaints were filed from are:

• 454 Complaints: CA
• 359 Complaints: FL
• 338 Complaints: TX
• 241 Complaints: NY
• 145 Complaints: OH
• 134 Complaints: IL
• 134 Complaints: NJ
• 127 Complaints: PA
• 122 Complaints: GA
• 99 Complaints: VA

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

• 2396 Closed with explanation (66.9%)
• 582 Closed with non-monetary relief (16.2%)
• 305 In progress (8.5%)
• 130 Untimely response (3.6%)
• 112 Closed (3.1%)
• 57 Closed with monetary relief (1.6%)

This includes 3300 (92.1%) timely responses to complaints, and 282 (7.9%) untimely responses

Of the company responses, consumers accepted 3043 (85%) of them, and disputed 539 (15%) of them

The top five days for complaints were:

• 184 Complaints: Wed, 04/23/2014
• 176 Complaints: Tue, 04/29/2014
• 166 Complaints: Thu, 04/10/2014
• 164 Complaints: Thu, 04/17/2014
• 164 Complaints: Mon, 04/07/2014

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 

Grand Rapids, MI (May 27, 2014) – WebRecon, the leading provider of consumer complaint data to the credit and collection industry, announced today a new partnership with Ontario Systems, a leading receivables management technology and services provider.  Ontario Systems will offer WebRecon’s consumer litigant scrub (“The Litigant Alert”) to its customer base through its integrated Link product.

“WebRecon has spent years developing a resource like no other in this industry,” says Jack Gordon, WebRecon CEO.  “We have built the tools and databases from scratch to aggregate and connect the sources of potential litigation in ways nobody else has attempted.” WebRecon products provide the collection industry with tools that go beyond typical call list scrubbers.

WebRecon helps debt collectors and creditors identify accounts with a history of consumer litigation. Consumers who have sued in the past are a much higher risk to sue again in the future. Knowing which accounts are a higher risk better equips debt collectors to prevent expensive and resource-intensive consumer litigation.

“When our highly litigious society is coupled with the increasing compliance and regulatory oversight in the ARM space, we need to provide our customers with as much help as possible,” says Chris Cochran, Ontario Systems Partnership Relations Director. “WebRecon provides a great first line of defense in this fight. We are pleased to announce the completion of the integration of this service for all of our collection platforms.”

“Ontario Systems’ extraordinary leadership on compliance issues has been a great source of personal inspiration to me,” Gordon concludes. “We are very excited to partner with Ontario Systems and share our unique vision with their broad base of users.”

About Ontario Systems

Ontario Systems, LLC is a leading provider of accounts receivable and strategic receivables management solutions for the collections and healthcare industries. Offering a full portfolio of software, services, and business process expertise, Ontario Systems customers include nine of the 10 largest collections agencies, and three of the five biggest health systems in the U.S., with 55,000 representatives in more than 500 locations. To learn more about how Ontario Systems can help power up your receivables, visit OntarioSystems.com.

About WebRecon

WebRecon works with hundreds of collection agencies, law firms and debt buyers to screen their databases for consumers with a history of FDCPA, TCPA or FCRA actions in their past. Isolating those risks early in the process creates an opportunity to handle them in the most beneficial way possible for the debt collector in the present. WebRecon also offers a unique litigious consumer phone scrub and a proprietary vendor monitoring tool that helps monitor litigation and CFPB complaints against a custom watchlist of vendors. To learn more about how WebRecon can reduce predicable litigation against your company, visit WebRecon.com.

Quick analysis: In the March data we see an answer to one burning question… why were CFPB complaints down so drastically (like 20%) last month? The answer is simple… they weren’t. But, the CFPB did not release the data to show us the full picture until April. Data availability issues aside, we now starting to see a fairly consistent pattern with consumer complaints filed against debt collectors through the CFPB. Take a look at the actual numbers:

Other than October 2013, we see complaint volumes holding steady or rising every month. It is reasonable to expect all of these numbers to continue to grow, by the way, as the CFPB continues to populate the complaint database with older data. But the pattern should stay reasonably intact: we have probably not topped out yet in monthly complaint volume.

In consumer litigation, we are seeing a fairly strong uptick in FDCPA lawsuits filed in March 2014, with 875. Compare this to data from the last six months:

Maybe it is nothing. Then again, maybe the market for FDCPA litigation has begun to balance itself. The months ahead will tell. Either way, FDCPA is still down 18% over last year, continuing the three-year trend of declining glory.

FCRA and TCPA litigation hold no big surprises, other than perhaps how close TCPA seems to be to overtaking FCRA as the 2nd most-litigated consumer statute in the debt collection arena. Note that in the first three months of 2011, there were 108 TCPA lawsuits to 296 FCRA lawsuits. In 2012 it was 258 TCPA to 595 FCRA. And last year, it was 478 TCPA to 624 FCRA. This year, in the first three months of tracking, there are 597 TCPA lawsuits to 657 FCRA lawsuits. It is not a matter of if TCPA overtakes FCRA this year, but how many (or few) months will it take to become official.

Litigation Statistics:

About 3428 consumers filed CFPB complaints against debt collectors and about 1194 consumers filed lawsuits under consumer statutes in March 2014. Here is an approximate breakdown:

• 3428 CFPB Complaints
• 875 FDCPA
• 217 FCRA
• 224 TCPA

Litigation Summary (scroll down for CFPB data):

• Of those cases, there were about 1194 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
• Of those plaintiffs, about 413, or (34.6%), had sued under consumer statutes before.
• Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 2100 lawsuits since 2001
• Actions were filed in 157 different US District Court branches.
• About 846 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

• 68 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
• 65 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
• 50 Lawsuits: Colorado District Court – Denver
• 36 Lawsuits: California Southern District Court – San Diego
• 35 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
• 34 Lawsuits: Michigan Eastern District Court – Detroit
• 31 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Los Angeles
• 30 Lawsuits: Florida Southern District Court – Fort Lauderdale
• 29 Lawsuits: Indiana Southern District Court – Indianapolis
• 28 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court – Tampa

The most active consumer attorneys were:

• Representing 66 Consumers: Sergei Lemberg
• Representing 26 Consumers: David Michael Larson
• Representing 23 Consumers: Mark H Rephen
• Representing 20 Consumers: Todd M Friedman
• Representing 18 Consumers: David Palace
• Representing 17 Consumers: Matthew Jon Militzok
• Representing 16 Consumers: Maxim Maximov
• Representing 15 Consumers: Michael Anthony Eades
• Representing 15 Consumers: John Thomas Steinkamp
• Representing 15 Consumers: Shireen Hormozdi

Statistics Year to Date: 2975 total lawsuits for 2014, including:

• 2378 FDCPA
• 597 FCRA
• 657 TCPA

Number of Unique Plaintiffs: 3157 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

• Representing 175 Consumers: Sergei Lemberg
• Representing 74 Consumers: David Michael Larson
• Representing 60 Consumers: Erikson M Davis
• Representing 48 Consumers: Todd M Friedman
• Representing 47 Consumers: John Thomas Steinkamp
• Representing 47 Consumers: Michael Anthony Eades
• Representing 41 Consumers: Matthew Jon Militzok
• Representing 38 Consumers: David J Philipps
• Representing 37 Consumers: Mary Elizabeth Philipps
• Representing 36 Consumers: Adam Jon Fishbein

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

There were about 3428 complaints filed against debt collectors in March 2014.

Total number of debt collectors complained about: 707

The types of debt behind the complaints were:

• 953 Other (phone, health club, etc.) (27.8%)
• 834 Credit card (24.3%)
• 685 Unknown (20%)
• 307 Medical (9%)
• 273 Payday loan (8%)
• 145 Mortgage (4.2%)
• 91 Auto (2.7%)
• 75 Non-federal student loan (2.2%)
• 65 Federal student loan (1.9%)

Here is a breakdown of complaints:

• 1366 Cont’d attempts collect debt not owed (39.8%)
• 679 Disclosure verification of debt (19.8%)
• 609 Communication tactics (17.8%)
• 273 Improper contact or sharing of info (8%)
• 273 False statements or representation (8%)
• 228 Taking/threatening an illegal action (6.7%)

The top five subissues were:

• 810 Debt is not mine (23.6%)
• 512 Not given enough info to verify debt (14.9%)
• 363 Debt was paid (10.6%)
• 358 Frequent or repeated calls (10.4%)
• 206 Attempted to collect wrong amount (6%)

The top states complaints were filed from are:

• 455 Complaints: CA
• 289 Complaints: FL
• 288 Complaints: TX
• 203 Complaints: NY
• 158 Complaints: GA
• 133 Complaints: VA
• 129 Complaints: PA
• 119 Complaints: NJ
• 118 Complaints: OH
• 97 Complaints: IL

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

• 2354 Closed with explanation (68.7%)
• 561 Closed with non-monetary relief (16.4%)
• 253 In progress (7.4%)
• 107 Closed (3.1%)
• 78 Closed with monetary relief (2.3%)
• 75 Untimely response (2.2%)

This includes 3323 (96.9%) timely responses to complaints, and 105 (3.1%) untimely responses

Of the company responses, consumers accepted 2921 (85.2%) of them, and disputed 507 (14.8%) of them

The top five days for complaints were:

• 182 Complaints: Thu, 03/06/2014
• 177 Complaints: Thu, 03/27/2014
• 171 Complaints: Thu, 03/13/2014
• 162 Complaints: Tue, 03/11/2014
• 158 Complaints: Tue, 03/18/2014

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 

Grand Rapids, MI (April 7, 2014) – WebRecon LLC is pleased to make two announcements today:

Litigious Consumer Phone Scrub: Dialing in this day and age is riskier than ever. With TCPA litigation exploding both in volume and in the cost to deal with (not to mention the continued prominence of both FDCPA and FCRA litigation), WebRecon is excited to announce a new product aimed squarely at all companies who dial. The Litigious Consumer Phone Scrub allows clients to push phone numbers through WebRecon’s litigation database for a near-instant report on numbers that appear to be associated with known consumer litigants.

The service is launching with over 50,000 phone numbers today, and the company expects to add around 400-500 new phone numbers per month., according to WebRecon CEO Jack Gordon.

New Web Site: In addition to the Litigious Consumer Phone Scrub, WebRecon is thrilled to announce its new logo and a website makeover at www.webrecon.com

“This is something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time,” says WebRecon CEO Jack Gordon. “We just recently had our 5-year anniversary, and we were long overdue for a cleaner, subtler and more modern image.”

In addition to its fresh new design, the site is bringing back WebRecon’s exclusive monthly statistics of CFPB complaints and consumer litigation. That information had been featured at interactivecredit.com, but that site will be retired.

For more information, please contact:

Jack Gordon, CEO
WebRecon LLC
Web: www.WebRecon.com
Email: admin@webrecon.net
Phone: (616) 682-5327

###

Quick analysis: In February we are seeing some volatility in CFPB filings against debt collectors, with a fairly dramatic drop from 3121 in January (amended up about 5% from the 2975 complaints we were able to report last month) to 2513 in February. That is 19.5% lower. The three fewer days in February are not enough to explain the drop, though it is reasonable to expect that the final February total will rise a bit to further close the gap (but not enough to make this much less dramatic). This emulates a decrease in overall CFPB complaint filings across all categories last month with 9725 filed in February vs. 12,231 filed in January (a 25.7% drop).

In litigation, FDCPA lawsuits ticked up in February a bit over 10%, but is still down a considerable 21% over this time last year (keep in mind this is only two months of data…).  FCRA is down a bit (2.6%, not particularly significant) and TCPA is up a bit (6.7%, also not particularly significant). Both FCRA and TCPA are up YTD though, 20% and 35% respectively.

Litigation Statistics:

2513 consumers filed CFPB complaints against debt collectors and about 1102 consumers filed lawsuits under consumer statutes in February 2014. Here is an approximate breakdown:

• 2513 CFPB Complaints
• 784 FDCPA
• 186 FCRA
• 222 TCPA

Litigation Summary (scroll down for CFPB data):

• Of those cases, there were about 1102 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
• Of those plaintiffs, about 405, or (36.8%), had sued under consumer statutes before.
• Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 1955 lawsuits since 2001
• Actions were filed in 167 different US District Court branches.
• About 798 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

• 73 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
• 43 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
• 36 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
• 35 Lawsuits: California Southern District Court – San Diego
• 34 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Los Angeles
• 33 Lawsuits: Colorado District Court – Denver
• 27 Lawsuits: Michigan Eastern District Court – Detroit
• 26 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
• 26 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court – Tampa
• 25 Lawsuits: Indiana Southern District Court – Indianapolis

The most active consumer attorneys were:

• Representing 60 Consumers: Erikson M Davis
• Representing 54 Consumers: Sergei Lemberg
• Representing 21 Consumers: David Michael Larson
• Representing 21 Consumers: Todd M Friedman
• Representing 20 Consumers: Mark D Mailman
• Representing 18 Consumers: John Thomas Steinkamp
• Representing 18 Consumers: Michael Anthony Eades
• Representing 14 Consumers: Adam Jon Fishbein
• Representing 14 Consumers: Nicholas J Bontrager
• Representing 13 Consumers: Bret Leon Lusskin

Statistics Year to Date: 1883 total lawsuits for 2014, including:

• 1493 FDCPA
• 377 FCRA
• 430 TCPA

Number of Unique Plaintiffs: 2007 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

• Representing 109 Consumers: Sergei Lemberg
• Representing 60 Consumers: Erikson M Davis
• Representing 48 Consumers: David Michael Larson
• Representing 32 Consumers: Michael Anthony Eades
• Representing 32 Consumers: John Thomas Steinkamp
• Representing 28 Consumers: Todd M Friedman
• Representing 27 Consumers: David J Philipps
• Representing 25 Consumers: Angie K Robertson
• Representing 24 Consumers: Matthew Jon Militzok
• Representing 24 Consumers: Bret Leon Lusskin

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

There were 2513 complaints filed against debt collectors in February 2014.

Total number of debt collectors complained about: 548

The types of debt behind the complaints were:

• 682 Other (phone, health club, etc.) (27.1%)
• 557 Credit card (22.2%)
• 541 Unknown (21.5%)
• 266 Medical (10.6%)
• 183 Payday loan (7.3%)
• 91 Mortgage (3.6%)
• 67 Non-federal student loan (2.7%)
• 65 Federal student loan (2.6%)
• 61 Auto (2.4%)

Here is a breakdown of complaints:

• 1033 Cont’d attempts collect debt not owed (41.1%)
• 492 Communication tactics (19.6%)
• 406 Disclosure verification of debt (16.2%)
• 222 False statements or representation (8.8%)
• 206 Improper contact or sharing of info (8.2%)
• 154 Taking/threatening an illegal action (6.1%)

The top five subissues were:

• 678 Debt is not mine (27%)
• 311 Frequent or repeated calls (12.4%)
• 287 Not given enough info to verify debt (11.4%)
• 242 Debt was paid (9.6%)
• 176 Attempted to collect wrong amount (7%)

The top states complaints were filed from are:

• 354 Complaints: CA
• 242 Complaints: TX
• 220 Complaints: FL
• 144 Complaints: NY
• 103 Complaints: PA
• 100 Complaints: OH
• 94 Complaints: GA
• 88 Complaints: NJ
• 77 Complaints: VA
• 75 Complaints: IL

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

• 1679 Closed with explanation (66.8%)
• 441 Closed with non-monetary relief (17.5%)
• 261 In progress (10.4%)
• 69 Closed (2.7%)
• 37 Untimely response (1.5%)
• 26 Closed with monetary relief (1%)

This includes 2457 (97.8%) timely responses to complaints, and 56 (2.2%) untimely responses

Of the company responses, consumers accepted 2156 (85.8%) of them, and disputed 357 (14.2%) of them

The top five days for complaints were:

• 147 Complaints: Thu, 02/13/2014
• 142 Complaints: Thu, 02/06/2014
• 138 Complaints: Tue, 02/11/2014
• 134 Complaints: Wed, 02/19/2014
• 132 Complaints: Mon, 02/10/2014

Quick analysis: 2014 started without any big surprises in consumer litigation. FDCPA filings in January are down from a year ago, and TCPA & FCRA are up. But with only one month of data it is too early to draw any meaningful conclusions yet.

CFPB complaints have been adjusted for some significant new data influxes. 2013 saw a total of 11,043 CFPB complaints filed against debt collectors. With a January 2014 total of 2975 complaints, it is a pretty safe bet that this year will eclipse last year in total complaint volume – likely within just a few months. Scroll down to see CFPB details from January.

Litigation Statistics:

2975 consumers filed CFPB complaints against debt collectors and about 940 consumers filed lawsuits under consumer statutes in January 2014. Here is an approximate breakdown:

• 2975 CFPB Complaints
• 709 FDCPA
• 191 FCRA
• 208 TCPA

Litigation Summary (scroll down for CFPB data):

• Of those cases, there were about 940 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
• Of those plaintiffs, about 299, or (31.8%), had sued under consumer statutes before.
• Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 1595 lawsuits since 2001
• Actions were filed in 141 different US District Court branches.
• About 782 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

• 50 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
• 41 Lawsuits: Colorado District Court – Denver
• 36 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
• 31 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
• 30 Lawsuits: Florida Southern District Court – Fort Lauderdale
• 29 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Los Angeles
• 27 Lawsuits: Minnesota District Court – Dmn
• 26 Lawsuits: California Southern District Court – San Diego
• 23 Lawsuits: Florida Southern District Court – Miami
• 22 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court – Tampa

The most active consumer attorneys were:

• Representing 55 Consumers: Sergei Lemberg
• Representing 27 Consumers: David Michael Larson
• Representing 20 Consumers: Matthew Jon Militzok
• Representing 18 Consumers: David J Philipps
• Representing 17 Consumers: Angie K Robertson
• Representing 16 Consumers: Jody Berke Burton
• Representing 16 Consumers: Tammy L Hussin
• Representing 15 Consumers: Mary Elizabeth Philipps
• Representing 14 Consumers: Yechezkel Rodal
• Representing 14 Consumers: Michael Anthony Eades

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

There were 2975 complaints filed against debt collectors in January 2014.

Total number of debt collectors complained about: 627

The types of debt behind the complaints were:

• 779 Other (phone, health club, etc.) (26.2%)
• 673 Credit card (22.6%)
• 634 Unknown (21.3%)
• 285 Medical (9.6%)
• 235 Payday loan (7.9%)
• 124 Mortgage (4.2%)
• 103 Auto (3.5%)
• 72 Federal student loan (2.4%)
• 70 Non-federal student loan (2.4%)

Here is a breakdown of complaints:

• 1215 Cont’d attempts collect debt not owed (40.8%)
• 561 Communication tactics (18.9%)
• 508 Disclosure verification of debt (17.1%)
• 265 Improper contact or sharing of info (8.9%)
• 233 False statements or representation (7.8%)
• 193 Taking/threatening an illegal action (6.5%)

The top five subissues were:

• 777 Debt is not mine (26.1%)
• 363 Frequent or repeated calls (12.2%)
• 358 Not given enough info to verify debt (12%)
• 297 Debt was paid (10%)
• 181 Attempted to collect wrong amount (6.1%)

The top states complaints were filed from are:

• 375 Complaints: CA
• 290 Complaints: TX
• 263 Complaints: FL
• 205 Complaints: NY
• 116 Complaints: OH
• 109 Complaints: VA
• 105 Complaints: NJ
• 105 Complaints: GA
• 98 Complaints: PA
• 93 Complaints: IL

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

• 2027 Closed with explanation (68.1%)
• 477 Closed with non-monetary relief (16%)
• 261 In progress (8.8%)
• 93 Closed (3.1%)
• 70 Closed with monetary relief (2.4%)
• 47 Untimely response (1.6%)

This includes 2894 (97.3%) timely responses to complaints, and 81 (2.7%) untimely responses

Of the company responses, consumers accepted 2505 (84.2%) of them, and disputed 470 (15.8%) of them

The top five days for complaints were:

• 190 Complaints: Wed, 01/22/2014
• 174 Complaints: Thu, 01/16/2014
• 142 Complaints: Thu, 01/09/2014
• 137 Complaints: Fri, 01/17/2014
• 136 Complaints: Mon, 01/13/2014

Quick analysis: Well, 2013 is over. And, as expected, FDCPA litigation has decreased for the second year in a row, down 10% over 2012 (which itself was down 7% over 2011). Also expected, TCPA litigation exploded this year, up 69% over 2012. The one surprise in the year-end numbers is that FCRA litigation eked out a small increase (just 1%, but still) over 2012, after spending most of the year down from 2012.

Meanwhile, CFPB complaints against debt collectors seem to have settled into a 1200’ish monthly rate, after exploding out of the gate over the summer. (The best explanation we can come up with for that, by the way, is pent-up demand.)

Our bold prediction for 2014 (don’t hold us to it, though…) is that FDCPA litigation has probably come close to bottoming out and will likely stabilize in the 9k-10k/year area. That assumes a minimum of around 750 lawsuits/month on average, which seems to be where we are now.

Year-Over-Year Numbers

Statistics for December 2013:

1254 consumers filed CFPB complaints against debt collectors and about 1026 consumers filed lawsuits under consumer statutes in December 2013. Here is an approximate breakdown:

• 1254 CFPB Complaints
• 767 FDCPA
• 221 FCRA
• 173 TCPA

Litigation Summary (scroll down for CFPB data):

• Of those cases, there were about 1026 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
• Of those plaintiffs, about 371, or (36.2%), had sued under consumer statutes before.
• Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 1896 lawsuits since 2001
• Actions were filed in 144 different US District Court branches.
• About 881 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

• 76 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
• 42 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
• 35 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
• 33 Lawsuits: New York Southern District Court – Foley Square
• 33 Lawsuits: Colorado District Court – Denver
• 25 Lawsuits: Florida Southern District Court – Fort Lauderdale
• 24 Lawsuits: Hawaii District Court – Honolulu
• 24 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Los Angeles
• 23 Lawsuits: New Jersey District Court – Newark
• 23 Lawsuits: California Southern District Court – San Diego

The most active consumer attorneys were:

• Representing 41 Consumers: Roger Y Dewa
• Representing 40 Consumers: Craig Thor Kimmel
• Representing 22 Consumers: Sergei Lemberg
• Representing 20 Consumers: Jody Berke Burton
• Representing 20 Consumers: David Michael Larson
• Representing 18 Consumers: N James Turner
• Representing 17 Consumers: Mary Elizabeth Philipps
• Representing 17 Consumers: David J Philipps
• Representing 17 Consumers: Angie K Robertson
• Representing 16 Consumers: Tammy L Hussin

Statistics Year to Date:

11962 total lawsuits for 2013, including:

• 10320 FDCPA
• 2276 FCRA
• 1862 TCPA

Number of Unique Plaintiffs: 12,601 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

• Representing 369 Consumers: Sergei Lemberg
• Representing 279 Consumers: David Michael Larson
• Representing 235 Consumers: Craig Thor Kimmel
• Representing 225 Consumers: Daniel A Edelman
• Representing 210 Consumers: Jody Berke Burton
• Representing 204 Consumers: David J Philipps
• Representing 195 Consumers: Mary Elizabeth Philipps
• Representing 171 Consumers: Angie K Robertson
• Representing 171 Consumers: Gary D Nitzkin
• Representing 169 Consumers: Cathleen M Combs

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

There were 1254 complaints filed against debt collectors in December 2013.

Total number of debt collectors complained about: 383

The types of debt behind the complaints were:

• 357 Other (phone, health club, etc.) (28.5%)
• 275 Unknown (21.9%)
• 255 Credit card (20.3%)
• 156 Medical (12.4%)
• 63 Payday loan (5%)
• 42 Mortgage (3.3%)
• 39 Auto (3.1%)
• 36 Non-federal student loan (2.9%)
• 31 Federal student loan (2.5%)

Here is a breakdown of complaints:

• 534 Cont’d attempts collect debt not owed (42.6%)
• 246 Communication tactics (19.6%)
• 214 Disclosure verification of debt (17.1%)
• 97 Improper contact or sharing of info (7.7%)
• 85 False statements or representation (6.8%)
• 78 Taking/threatening an illegal action (6.2%)

The top five subissues were:

• 324 Debt is not mine (25.8%)
• 167 Frequent or repeated calls (13.3%)
• 143 Debt was paid (11.4%)
• 140 Not given enough info to verify debt (11.2%)
• 63 Right to dispute notice not received (5%)

The top states complaints were filed from are:

• 142 Complaints: CA
• 119 Complaints: TX
• 105 Complaints: FL
• 100 Complaints: NY
• 54 Complaints: NJ
• 48 Complaints: PA
• 44 Complaints: GA
• 41 Complaints: IL
• 37 Complaints: VA
• 36 Complaints: MI

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

• 815 Closed with explanation (65%)
• 219 Closed with non-monetary relief (17.5%)
• 158 In progress (12.6%)
• 32 Closed (2.6%)
• 23 Closed with monetary relief (1.8%)
• 7 Untimely response (0.6%)

This includes 1246 (99.4%) timely responses to complaints, and 8 (0.6%) untimely responses

Of the company responses, consumers accepted 1106 (88.2%) of them, and disputed 148 (11.8%) of them

The top five days for complaints were:

• 78 Complaints: Tue, 12/10/2013
• 69 Complaints: Fri, 12/13/2013
• 69 Complaints: Mon, 12/02/2013
• 68 Complaints: Tue, 12/17/2013
• 66 Complaints: Wed, 12/11/2013

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 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:

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

Note: Starting this month, we are offering CFPB complaint statistics against debt collectors.

Quick analysis: This month, we begin including statistics from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s database on complaints filed about debt collectors. And the lead story is…. consumer complaints plummeted in October, after steadily increasing over the first three months. Scroll down to see the data. As for an explanation, well, we don’t have one yet. Since this is the first data we have seen, we’ll have to keep watching to spot the trends. It may be as simple as the lag time between complaints being filed and responded to before they are reported. We should be a little smarter in time for next month’s statistics.

As for litigation, the trend continues with FDCPA and FCRA filings on the decline, (8% YTD and 2% YTD, respectively). In a rare departure from the trends, TCPA also declined this period, though it is still up 66% over this time last year.

Litigation Statistics:

About 983 consumers filed lawsuits under consumer statutes in October 2013. Here is an approximate breakdown:

• 800 FDCPA
• 207 FCRA
• 162 TCPA

Summary:

• Of those cases, there were about 1088 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
• Of those plaintiffs, about 356, or (32.7%), had sued under consumer statutes before.
• Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 1854 lawsuits since 2001
• Actions were filed in 141 different US District Court branches.
• About 841 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

• 60 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
• 44 Lawsuits: Colorado District Court – Denver
• 37 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
• 37 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
• 35 Lawsuits: Indiana Southern District Court – Indianapolis
• 30 Lawsuits: Michigan Eastern District Court – Detroit
• 30 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court – Tampa
• 27 Lawsuits: Minnesota District Court – Dmn
• 26 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Los Angeles
• 24 Lawsuits: California Southern District Court – San Diego

The most active consumer attorneys were:

• Representing 43 Consumers: Jody Berke Burton
• Representing 28 Consumers: John Thomas Steinkamp
• Representing 28 Consumers: Michael Anthony Eades
• Representing 26 Consumers: David Michael Larson
• Representing 21 Consumers: Sergei Lemberg
• Representing 18 Consumers: Daniel A Edelman
• Representing 15 Consumers: Angie K Robertson
• Representing 15 Consumers: David J Philipps
• Representing 15 Consumers: Mary Elizabeth Philipps
• Representing 14 Consumers: David J Syrios

Statistics Year to Date:

10285 total lawsuits for 2013, including:

• 8914 FDCPA
• 1873 FCRA
• 1483 TCPA

Number of Unique Plaintiffs: 10856 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

• Representing 296 Consumers: Sergei Lemberg
• Representing 245 Consumers: David Michael Larson
• Representing 201 Consumers: Daniel A Edelman
• Representing 195 Consumers: Craig Thor Kimmel
• Representing 178 Consumers: David J Philipps
• Representing 171 Consumers: Mary Elizabeth Philipps
• Representing 169 Consumers: Jody Berke Burton
• Representing 152 Consumers: Cathleen M Combs
• Representing 152 Consumers: Gary D Nitzkin
• Representing 147 Consumers: James O Latturner

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CFPB Complaint Statistics:

There were 1186 complaints filed against debt collectors in October 2013.

Total number of debt collectors complained about: 346

The types of debt behind the complaints were:

• 378 Other (phone, health club, etc.) (31.9%)
• 275 Unknown (23.2%)
• 259 Credit card (21.8%)
• 127 Medical (10.7%)
• 51 Mortgage (4.3%)
• 34 Non-federal student loan (2.9%)
• 30 Auto (2.5%)
• 30 Federal student loan (2.5%)
• 2 Payday loan (0.2%)

Here is a breakdown of complaints:

• 485 Cont’d attempts collect debt not owed (40.9%)
• 244 Communication tactics (20.6%)
• 233 Disclosure verification of debt (19.6%)
• 82 False statements or representation (6.9%)
• 80 Improper contact or sharing of info (6.7%)
• 62 Taking/threatening an illegal action (5.2%)

The top five subissues were:

• 322 Debt is not mine (27.2%)
• 181 Not given enough info to verify debt (15.3%)
• 156 Frequent or repeated calls (13.2%)
• 125 Debt was paid (10.5%)
• 61 Attempted to collect wrong amount (5.1%)

The top states complaints were filed from are:

• 163 Complaints: CA
• 104 Complaints: TX
• 98 Complaints: FL
• 92 Complaints: NY
• 47 Complaints: NJ
• 46 Complaints: AZ
• 45 Complaints: GA
• 41 Complaints: PA
• 34 Complaints: VA
• 31 Complaints: SC

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

• 751 Closed with explanation (63.3%)
• 241 Closed with non-monetary relief (20.3%)
• 127 In progress (10.7%)
• 29 Closed with monetary relief (2.4%)
• 25 Closed (2.1%)
• 13 Untimely response (1.1%)

This includes 1156 (97.5%) timely responses to complaints, and 30 (2.5%) untimely responses

Of the company responses, consumers accepted 1022 (86.2%) of them, and disputed 164 (13.8%) of them

The top five days for complaints were:

• 78 Complaints: 10/22/2013
• 74 Complaints: 10/31/2013
• 72 Complaints: 10/17/2013
• 71 Complaints: 10/18/2013
• 58 Complaints: 10/29/2013

Quick analysis: FDCPA & FCRA are down, TCPA is up. After several months of such trending, this appears to be the new normal. FDCPA is down 6% YTD from last year, FCRA is down 3% YTD, and TCPA is up a staggering 70% over YTD 2012. Note that TCPA is set to become even stricter starting October 16 (the date of this report), meaning that future months will reflect an even more fertile environment for consumer litigation. Our new projection for FDCPA litigation in 2013 is around 10,850 lawsuits, FCRA should have around 2300 lawsuits and TCPA will end up around 1775 lawsuits.

Full Statistics:

There were about 983 lawsuits filed under consumer statutes in September 2013. Here is an approximate breakdown:

• 800 FDCPA
• 207 FCRA
• 162 TCPA

Summary:

• Of those cases, there were about 1088 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
• Of those plaintiffs, about 418, or (38.4%), had sued under consumer statutes before.
• Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 2088 lawsuits since 2001
• Actions were filed in 141 different US District Court branches.
• About 841 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

• 60 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
• 44 Lawsuits: Colorado District Court – Denver
• 37 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
• 37 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
• 35 Lawsuits: Indiana Southern District Court – Indianapolis
• 30 Lawsuits: Michigan Eastern District Court – Detroit
• 30 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court – Tampa
• 27 Lawsuits: Minnesota District Court – Dmn
• 26 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Los Angeles
• 24 Lawsuits: California Southern District Court – San Diego

The most active consumer attorneys were:

• Representing 43 Consumers: Jody Berke Burton
• Representing 28 Consumers: John Thomas Steinkamp
• Representing 28 Consumers: Michael Anthony Eades
• Representing 26 Consumers: David Michael Larson
• Representing 21 Consumers: Sergei Lemberg
• Representing 18 Consumers: Daniel A Edelman
• Representing 15 Consumers: Angie K Robertson
• Representing 15 Consumers: David J Philipps
• Representing 15 Consumers: Mary Elizabeth Philipps
• Representing 14 Consumers: David J Syrios

Statistics Year to Date:

9323 total lawsuits for 2013, including:

• 8131 FDCPA
• 1677 FCRA
• 1332 TCPA

Number of Unique Plaintiffs: 9934 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

• Representing 271 Consumers: Sergei Lemberg
• Representing 214 Consumers: David Michael Larson
• Representing 175 Consumers: Craig Thor Kimmel
• Representing 171 Consumers: Daniel A Edelman
• Representing 163 Consumers: David J Philipps
• Representing 143 Consumers: Gary D Nitzkin
• Representing 132 Consumers: Mary Elizabeth Philipps
• Representing 131 Consumers: Angie K Robertson
• Representing 126 Consumers: Cathleen M Combs
• Representing 123 Consumers: James O Latturner