Blog/ Litigation Stats

Quick analysis: Well, it looks like 2019 begins with a screech out of the gates. In January, all three of the main consumer statutes we track (FDCPA, TCPA, FCRA) were up significantly over December 2018. But only FCRA was also up over January 2018 as well.

FDCPA was up +25.8% over Dec, but down -11.9% compared to January 2018.
TCPA was up +35.4% over Dec, but down -4.1% compared to January 2018.
FCRA was up +8.8% over Dec, and also up +12.6% compared to January 2018.

What does it mean? The year started fairly strong for consumer litigation, but probably not strong enough to break recent trends.

BBB and BCFP complaints both dramatically increased in 2018, but have so far started the year fairly slowly (ignore the current numbers in our grid, the numbers for those two categories are never really all in until 30-60 days after the end of the month).

In other news, putative class actions were pretty typical last month with 25% of FDCPA, 28.1% of TCPA and 4.9% of FCRA lawsuits filed that way.

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

And finally, Delaware FCRA attorney Antranig Garibian represented more consumers than anyone else in January (51). Since there has only been one month so far, he takes the crown for most lawsuits of the year as well.

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against serial litigants? Read more Here!

Complaint Statistics:

1966 consumers filed BBB complaints, 3108 consumers filed BCFP complaints, and about 1191 consumers filed lawsuits under consumer statutes from Jan 01, 2019 to Jan 31, 2019.

• 1966 BBB Complaints
• 3108 BCFP Complaints
• 717 FDCPA, 179 Class Action (25.0%)
• 302 TCPA, 85 Class Action (28.1%)
• 348 FCRA, 17 Class Action (4.9%)

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

• Of those cases, there were about 1191 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
• Of those plaintiffs, about 395, or (33%), had sued under consumer statutes before.
• Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 2432 lawsuits since 2001
• Actions were filed in 158 different US District Court branches.
• About 765 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

• 81 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
• 51 Lawsuits: Delaware District Court – Wilmington
• 48 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court – Tampa
• 46 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
• 39 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
• 39 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Central Islip
• 38 Lawsuits: Indiana Southern District Court – Indianapolis
• 37 Lawsuits: New Jersey District Court – Newark
• 36 Lawsuits: Nevada District Court – Las Vegas
• 35 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles

The most active consumer attorneys were:

• Representing 51 Consumers: ANTRANIG N GARIBIAN
• Representing 33 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
• Representing 30 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
• Representing 29 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
• Representing 27 Consumers: YAAKOV SAKS
• Representing 25 Consumers: DAVID SCOTT KLAIN
• Representing 25 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
• Representing 22 Consumers: SERGEI LEMBERG
• Representing 22 Consumers: DAVID M BARSHAY
• Representing 20 Consumers: JOHN D BLYTHIN

Statistics Year to Date:
1180 total lawsuits for 2019, including:

• 717 FDCPA
• 348 FCRA
• 302 TCPA

Number of Unique Plaintiffs for 2019: 1191 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

• Representing 51 Consumers: ANTRANIG N GARIBIAN
• Representing 33 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
• Representing 30 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
• Representing 29 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
• Representing 27 Consumers: YAAKOV SAKS
• Representing 25 Consumers: DAVID SCOTT KLAIN
• Representing 25 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
• Representing 22 Consumers: SERGEI LEMBERG
• Representing 22 Consumers: DAVID M BARSHAY
• Representing 20 Consumers: JOHN D BLYTHIN

Is your collection agency or call center protected
against serial litigants? Read more Here!

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BBB Complaint Statistics:

There were a total of 1966 BBB complaints from Jan 01, 2019 to Jan 31, 2019. That is down -34.3% from last month.

The types of companies being complained about were:

• 1342 collections-agencies (68%)
• 527 banks (27%)
• 97 credit+reporting (5%)

The categories of complaints filed were:

• 1373 Billing/Collection Issues (70%)
• 526 Problems with Product/Service (27%)
• 32 Delivery Issues (2%)
• 29 Advertising/Sales Issues (1%)
• 6 Guarantee/Warranty Issues (0%)

The dispositions of these complaints are:

• 1320 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. (67%)
• 526 The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction. (27%)
• 77 The business failed to respond to the dispute. (4%)
• 41 BBB is unable to locate the business. (2%)
• 2 The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it. (0%)

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BCFP Complaint Statistics:

There were 3108 complaints filed against debt collectors from Jan 01, 2019 to Jan 31, 2019.

Total number of debt collectors complained about: 718

The types of debt behind the complaints were:

• 871 Other debt (28%)
• 700 I do not know (23%)
• 663 Credit card debt (21%)
• 494 Medical debt (16%)
• 122 Auto debt (4%)
• 84 Payday loan debt (3%)
• 72 Mortgage debt (2%)
• 54 Federal student loan debt (2%)
• 48 Private student loan debt (2%)

Here is a breakdown of complaints:

• 1583 Attempts to collect debt not owed (51%)
• 623 Written notification about debt (20%)
• 296 Took or threatened to take negative or legal action (10%)
• 280 Communication tactics (9%)
• 250 False statements or representation (8%)
• 76 Threatened to contact someone or share information improperly (2%)

The top five subissues were:

• 763 Debt is not yours (25%)
• 474 Debt was result of identity theft (15%)
• 420 Didnt receive enough information to verify debt (14%)
• 287 Debt was paid (9%)
• 204 Attempted to collect wrong amount (7%)

The top states complaints were filed from are:

• 521 Complaints: TX
• 348 Complaints: CA
• 323 Complaints: FL
• 164 Complaints: GA
• 151 Complaints: NY
• 97 Complaints: IL
• 89 Complaints: PA
• 89 Complaints: NC
• 85 Complaints: OH
• 83 Complaints: AZ

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

• 2397 Closed with explanation (77%)
• 347 In progress (11%)
• 268 Closed with non-monetary relief (9%)
• 78 Untimely response (3%)
• 18 Closed with monetary relief (1%)

This includes 2997 (96%) timely responses to complaints, and 111 (4%) untimely responses.

Quick analysis: Well, 2018 ended pretty much along the trajectory it spent much of the year on. FDCPA and TCPA complaints dropped (-7.8% and -13.2% respectively), and FCRA, BBB and CFPB complaints all increased (+4.3%, +11.5% and +5.9% respectively)

FDCPA complaints are at their lowest point since 2008, when there were 6117 lawsuits.

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against serial litigants? Read more Here!

TCPA’s journey has been fairly symmetrical, rising every year since the beginning of the century through 2016 where it peaked at 4639 lawsuits. It has dropped each of the last two years in spite of easing regulation. Who know’s where it will end up in 2019?FCRA has been the big winner in recent years, rising every year since 2011. It is now the only consumer statute that has continued to increase in suits filed.CFPB complaints have been robust, growing every year since the agency began tracking complaints. The last two years have seen pretty significant jumps in the volume of complaints filed against creditors and debt collectors.BBB is perhaps the most surprising stat after what some might describe as the bottom falling out from under TCPA. While we only have three solid years of data, they are showing very solid growth and a trajectory that might make debt collectors think about beefing up their BBB complaint response policies. Keep in mind, the BBB’s monthly numbers take a longer time than the other categories to fill in, so look for December’s BBB complaints to at least double, bringing the full year number closer to 68k.

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against serial litigants? Read more Here!

The BBB and CFPB numbers are still trickling in for the month so December numbers are tentative. But we don’t need to see the full numbers to recognize the dramatic growth in non-litigious complaints filed by consumers against debt collectors and creditors.

For the month of December, every category was down from the previous month and from the previous year’s December (except FCRA suits).

In other news, putative class actions were mixed last month with 19.5% of FDCPA, 20.2% of TCPA and 7.8% of FCRA lawsuits filed that way.

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

And finally, Chicago attorney Nathan Volheim represented more consumers than anyone else in December (38) while New York attorney Craig Sanders has represented more consumers than any other attorney all year (456), retaining the title of most active consumer attorney of the year. Incidentally. Mr. Volheim is second on that list, having represented 427 consumer YTD.

Complaint Statistics:

1551 consumers filed BBB complaints, 3159 consumers filed BCFP complaints, and about 984 consumers filed lawsuits under consumer statutes from Dec 01, 2018 to Dec 31, 2018.

• 1551 BBB Complaints
• 3159 BCFP Complaints
• 570 FDCPA, 111 Class Action (19.5%)
• 223 TCPA, 45 Class Action (20.2%)
• 320 FCRA, 25 Class Action (7.8%)

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

• Of those cases, there were about 984 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
• Of those plaintiffs, about 313, or (32%), had sued under consumer statutes before.
• Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 1961 lawsuits since 2001
• Actions were filed in 152 different US District Court branches.
• About 678 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

• 77 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
• 53 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
• 36 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles
• 30 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court – Tampa
• 27 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
• 24 Lawsuits: Indiana Southern District Court – Indianapolis
• 23 Lawsuits: Nevada District Court – Las Vegas
• 22 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Central Islip
• 22 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
• 21 Lawsuits: California Southern District Court – San Diego

The most active consumer attorneys were:

• Representing 38 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
• Representing 28 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
• Representing 21 Consumers: JASON E CAUSEY
• Representing 21 Consumers: JAMES G BORDAS
• Representing 21 Consumers: ANTRANIG N GARIBIAN
• Representing 17 Consumers: SERGEI LEMBERG
• Representing 16 Consumers: TODD M FRIEDMAN
• Representing 15 Consumers: JOSEPH Y BALISOK
• Representing 15 Consumers: DAVID W HEMMINGER
• Representing 15 Consumers: MICHAEL JACOB WOOD

Statistics Year to Date:
14344 total lawsuits for 2018, including:

• 9009 FDCPA
• 4531 FCRA
• 3803 TCPA

Number of Unique Plaintiffs for 2018: 13714 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

• Representing 456 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
• Representing 427 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
• Representing 388 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
• Representing 292 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN
• Representing 286 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
• Representing 221 Consumers: TODD M FRIEDMAN
• Representing 213 Consumers: ANTRANIG N GARIBIAN
• Representing 212 Consumers: ELLIOT GALE
• Representing 200 Consumers: OMAR TAYSEER SULAIMAN
• Representing 199 Consumers: DAVID SCOTT KLAIN

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BBB Complaint Statistics:

There were a total of 1551 BBB complaints from Dec 01, 2018 to Dec 31, 2018. That is down -53.0% from last month.

The types of companies being complained about were:

• 766 banks (49%)
• 672 collections-agencies (43%)
• 113 credit+reporting (7%)

The categories of complaints filed were:

• 872 Billing/Collection Issues (56%)
• 606 Problems with Product/Service (39%)
• 41 Advertising/Sales Issues (3%)
• 25 Delivery Issues (2%)
• 7 Guarantee/Warranty Issues (0%)

The dispositions of these complaints are:

• 1085 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. (70%)
• 367 The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction. (24%)
• 78 The business failed to respond to the dispute. (5%)
• 13 BBB is unable to locate the business. (1%)
• 8 The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it. (1%)

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BCFP Complaint Statistics:

There were 3159 complaints filed against debt collectors from Dec 01, 2018 to Dec 31, 2018.

Total number of debt collectors complained about: 699

The types of debt behind the complaints were:

• 917 Other debt (29%)
• 724 Credit card debt (23%)
• 707 I do not know (22%)
• 461 Medical debt (15%)
• 123 Auto debt (4%)
• 67 Federal student loan debt (2%)
• 65 Payday loan debt (2%)
• 53 Mortgage debt (2%)
• 42 Private student loan debt (1%)

Here is a breakdown of complaints:

• 1513 Attempts to collect debt not owed (48%)
• 721 Written notification about debt (23%)
• 347 Communication tactics (11%)
• 252 False statements or representation (8%)
• 252 Took or threatened to take negative or legal action (8%)
• 74 Threatened to contact someone or share information improperly (2%)

The top five subissues were:

• 737 Debt is not yours (23%)
• 506 Didnt receive enough information to verify debt (16%)
• 485 Debt was result of identity theft (15%)
• 253 Debt was paid (8%)
• 202 Attempted to collect wrong amount (6%)

The top states complaints were filed from are:

• 415 Complaints: TX
• 365 Complaints: CA
• 311 Complaints: FL
• 251 Complaints: NY
• 162 Complaints: IL
• 157 Complaints: GA
• 119 Complaints: OH
• 110 Complaints: NC
• 88 Complaints: PA
• 77 Complaints: NJ

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

• 2413 Closed with explanation (76%)
• 358 In progress (11%)
• 314 Closed with non-monetary relief (10%)
• 55 Untimely response (2%)
• 19 Closed with monetary relief (1%)

This includes 3058 (97%) timely responses to complaints, and 101 (3%) untimely responses.

Quick analysis: As the year gets ready to close out, consumer complaint data is staying pretty consistent with patterns established early on.

BBB and BCFP complaints have both dramatically increased in 2018 (ignore the red on the “current month” column of the grid, the numbers for those two categories are never really all in until 30-60 days after the end of the month). BBB complaints are up +14.43% over 2017 YTD and BCFP complaints are up +9.45% over 2017 YTD.

Consistent with most of this year’s trending FCRA is up over last month (+7.3%) and last year (+4.1%), while FDCPA and TCPA are both down (FDCPA -7.9% from Oct, -6.8% YTD and TCPA -16.2% from Oct, -12.6% YTD).

In other news, putative class actions were mixed last month with 25.8% of FDCPA, 26% of TCPA and 5.8% of FCRA lawsuits filed that way.

About 31% of all plaintiffs who filed suit last month had filed at least once before.

And finally, Chicago attorney Nathan Volheim represented more consumers than anyone else in November (37) while New York attorney Craig Sanders has represented more consumers than any other attorney all year (447), retaining the title of most active consumer attorney of the year. Incidentally. Mr. Volheim is second on that list, having represented 389 consumer YTD.

Is your collection agency or call center protected
against serial litigants? Read more Here!

Complaint Statistics:

1308 consumers filed BBB complaints, 3196 consumers filed BCFP complaints, and about 1159 consumers filed lawsuits under consumer statutes from Nov 01, 2018 to Nov 30, 2018.

• 1308 BBB Complaints
• 3196 BCFP Complaints
• 679 FDCPA, 175 Class Action (25.8%)
• 285 TCPA, 74 Class Action (26.0%)
• 380 FCRA, 22 Class Action (5.8%)

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

• Of those cases, there were about 1159 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
• Of those plaintiffs, about 362, or (31%), had sued under consumer statutes before.
• Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 1883 lawsuits since 2001
• Actions were filed in 168 different US District Court branches.
• About 784 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

• 64 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
• 51 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
• 50 Lawsuits: New Jersey District Court – Newark
• 44 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles
• 39 Lawsuits: Nevada District Court – Las Vegas
• 36 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
• 34 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
• 30 Lawsuits: Indiana Southern District Court – Indianapolis
• 29 Lawsuits: Michigan Eastern District Court – Detroit
• 27 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court – Tampa

The most active consumer attorneys were:

• Representing 37 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
• Representing 36 Consumers: SERGEI LEMBERG
• Representing 34 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
• Representing 27 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
• Representing 24 Consumers: DANIEL ZEMEL
• Representing 22 Consumers: DAVID SCOTT KLAIN
• Representing 21 Consumers: YAAKOV SAKS
• Representing 18 Consumers: DAVID W HEMMINGER
• Representing 17 Consumers: ANTRANIG N GARIBIAN
• Representing 15 Consumers: TODD M FRIEDMAN

Statistics Year to Date:
13362 total lawsuits for 2018, including:

• 8434 FDCPA
• 4210 FCRA
• 3579 TCPA

Number of Unique Plaintiffs for 2018: 12864 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

• Representing 447 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
• Representing 389 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
• Representing 360 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
• Representing 282 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN
• Representing 275 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
• Representing 212 Consumers: ELLIOT GALE
• Representing 205 Consumers: TODD M FRIEDMAN
• Representing 192 Consumers: ANTRANIG N GARIBIAN
• Representing 189 Consumers: DAVID SCOTT KLAIN
• Representing 189 Consumers: AHMAD TAYSEER SULAIMAN

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BBB Complaint Statistics:

There were a total of 1308 BBB complaints from Nov 01, 2018 to Nov 30, 2018. That is down -69.9% from last month.

The types of companies being complained about were:

• 648 banks (50%)
• 502 collections-agencies (38%)
• 158 credit+reporting (12%)

The categories of complaints filed were:

• 715 Billing/Collection Issues (55%)
• 539 Problems with Product/Service (41%)
• 31 Advertising/Sales Issues (2%)
• 19 Delivery Issues (1%)
• 4 Guarantee/Warranty Issues (0%)

The dispositions of these complaints are:

• 931 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%)
• 300 The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction. (23%)
• 44 The business failed to respond to the dispute. (3%)
• 27 BBB is unable to locate the business. (2%)
• 6 The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it. (0%)

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BCFP Complaint Statistics:

There were 3196 complaints filed against debt collectors from Nov 01, 2018 to Nov 30, 2018.

Total number of debt collectors complained about: 745

The types of debt behind the complaints were:

• 913 Other debt (29%)
• 704 I do not know (22%)
• 684 Credit card debt (21%)
• 530 Medical debt (17%)
• 109 Auto debt (3%)
• 89 Payday loan debt (3%)
• 68 Mortgage debt (2%)
• 54 Federal student loan debt (2%)
• 45 Private student loan debt (1%)

Here is a breakdown of complaints:

• 1503 Attempts to collect debt not owed (47%)
• 629 Written notification about debt (20%)
• 419 Communication tactics (13%)
• 311 Took or threatened to take negative or legal action (10%)
• 264 False statements or representation (8%)
• 70 Threatened to contact someone or share information improperly (2%)

The top five subissues were:

• 761 Debt is not yours (24%)
• 453 Didnt receive enough information to verify debt (14%)
• 432 Debt was result of identity theft (14%)
• 256 Debt was paid (8%)
• 210 Attempted to collect wrong amount (7%)

The top states complaints were filed from are:

• 482 Complaints: TX
• 352 Complaints: CA
• 259 Complaints: FL
• 227 Complaints: GA
• 162 Complaints: NY
• 119 Complaints: IL
• 107 Complaints:
• 96 Complaints: NJ
• 91 Complaints: PA
• 89 Complaints: VA

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

• 2402 Closed with explanation (75%)
• 396 Closed with non-monetary relief (12%)
• 282 In progress (9%)
• 97 Untimely response (3%)
• 19 Closed with monetary relief (1%)

This includes 3059 (96%) timely responses to complaints, and 137 (4%) untimely responses.

Quick analysis: Up for the month… mostly down for the year.

As the year is getting ready to draw to a close, the trends that have been apparent from early on seem to be cementing in. Lawsuits have been up and down a lot this year, but the overall YTD trend has been pretty clear that FDCPA will drop a bit (-6.1%), FCRA will increase a bit (+3.7%), and TCPA – shockingly – will be down for the second year in a row, possibly by double digits (it is down -12.1% so far for the year.)

BBB and BCFP numbers are both up YTD by pretty significant margins (+8.6% and +9.3%, respectively.) Ignore the BBB monthly drop as not all of the data is in yet.

In other news, putative class actions were higher than normal last month with 22.3% of FDCPA, 32.4% of TCPA and 11.3% of FCRA lawsuits filed that way.

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

And finally, Chicago attorney Nathan Volheim represented more consumers than anyone else in October (33) while New York attorney Craig Sanders has represented more consumers than any other attorney all year (441), retaining the title of most active consumer attorney of the year. Incidentally. Mr. Volheim is second on that list, having represented 352 consumer YTD.

Complaint Statistics:

3179 consumers filed BBB complaints, 4082 consumers filed BCFP complaints, and about 1256 consumers filed lawsuits under consumer statutes from Oct 01, 2018 to Oct 31, 2018.

• 3179 BBB Complaints
• 4082 BCFP Complaints
• 737 FDCPA, 164 Class Action (22.3%)
• 340 TCPA, 110 Class Action (32.4%)
• 354 FCRA, 40 Class Action (11.3%)

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

• Of those cases, there were about 1256 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
• Of those plaintiffs, about 398, or (32%), had sued under consumer statutes before.
• Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 2178 lawsuits since 2001
• Actions were filed in 175 different US District Court branches.
• About 795 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

Is your collection agency or call center protected
against serial litigants? Read more Here!

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

• 60 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
• 44 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court – Tampa
• 42 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles
• 42 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
• 38 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
• 34 Lawsuits: Nevada District Court – Las Vegas
• 31 Lawsuits: Florida Southern District Court – Fort Lauderdale
• 31 Lawsuits: Florida Southern District Court – West Palm Beach
• 29 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
• 27 Lawsuits: New Jersey District Court – Newark

The most active consumer attorneys were:

• Representing 33 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
• Representing 31 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
• Representing 28 Consumers: DAVID J PHILIPPS
• Representing 26 Consumers: ANTRANIG N GARIBIAN
• Representing 25 Consumers: DAVID W HEMMINGER
• Representing 22 Consumers: MARY E PHILIPPS
• Representing 22 Consumers: SERGEI LEMBERG
• Representing 22 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
• Representing 21 Consumers: KRISTI CAHOON KELLY
• Representing 21 Consumers: ANGIE K ROBERTSON

Statistics Year to Date:
12215 total lawsuits for 2018, including:

• 7755 FDCPA
• 3830 FCRA
• 3294 TCPA

Number of Unique Plaintiffs for 2018: 11840 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

• Representing 441 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
• Representing 352 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
• Representing 326 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
• Representing 274 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN
• Representing 248 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
• Representing 212 Consumers: ELLIOT GALE
• Representing 190 Consumers: TODD M FRIEDMAN
• Representing 189 Consumers: AHMAD TAYSEER SULAIMAN
• Representing 175 Consumers: ANTRANIG N GARIBIAN
• Representing 172 Consumers: MARK A ELDRIDGE

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BBB Complaint Statistics:

There were a total of 3179 BBB complaints from Oct 01, 2018 to Oct 31, 2018. That is down -41.2% from last month.

The types of companies being complained about were:

• 1836 collections-agencies (58%)
• 1133 banks (36%)
• 210 credit+reporting (7%)

The categories of complaints filed were:

• 2012 Billing/Collection Issues (63%)
• 1061 Problems with Product/Service (33%)
• 64 Advertising/Sales Issues (2%)
• 32 Delivery Issues (1%)
• 10 Guarantee/Warranty Issues (0%)

The dispositions of these complaints are:

• 2269 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%)
• 711 The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction. (22%)
• 146 The business failed to respond to the dispute. (5%)
• 27 The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it. (1%)
• 26 BBB is unable to locate the business. (1%)

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BCFP Complaint Statistics:

There were 4082 complaints filed against debt collectors from Oct 01, 2018 to Oct 31, 2018.

Total number of debt collectors complained about: 850

The types of debt behind the complaints were:

• 1221 Other debt (30%)
• 907 Credit card debt (22%)
• 848 I do not know (21%)
• 595 Medical debt (15%)
• 159 Auto debt (4%)
• 131 Payday loan debt (3%)
• 104 Mortgage debt (3%)
• 75 Federal student loan debt (2%)
• 42 Private student loan debt (1%)

Here is a breakdown of complaints:

• 1850 Attempts to collect debt not owed (45%)
• 821 Written notification about debt (20%)
• 526 Communication tactics (13%)
• 392 Took or threatened to take negative or legal action (10%)
• 377 False statements or representation (9%)
• 116 Threatened to contact someone or share information improperly (3%)

The top five subissues were:

• 1002 Debt is not yours (25%)
• 582 Didnt receive enough information to verify debt (14%)
• 400 Debt was paid (10%)
• 360 Debt was result of identity theft (9%)
• 306 Attempted to collect wrong amount (7%)

The top states complaints were filed from are:

• 490 Complaints: TX
• 442 Complaints: CA
• 407 Complaints: FL
• 217 Complaints: GA
• 203 Complaints: NY
• 197 Complaints: IL
• 136 Complaints: OH
• 135 Complaints: NJ
• 127 Complaints: AZ
• 121 Complaints: PA

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

• 3179 Closed with explanation (78%)
• 488 Closed with non-monetary relief (12%)
• 257 In progress (6%)
• 136 Untimely response (3%)
• 22 Closed with monetary relief (1%)

This includes 3893 (95%) timely responses to complaints, and 189 (5%) untimely responses.

… must come down. After the first across-the-board rise in every complaint category (since early 2016) in August, we are now looking at a significant across-the-board drop in every category for September. How significant? Every category is down by double digits, from 16.8% (BCFP complaints) to 31.5% (TCPA complaints).

What does this mean? Usually, not very much. Year-over-year, these numbers have tended to be remarkably consistent. However, if trends hold, litigation this year is on track to be about 5% lower than the last several years. That is not huge, but it is not insignificant either.

In other news, putative class actions were mixed last month with 22.6% of FDCPA, 29% of TCPA and 3.2% of FCRA lawsuits filed that way.

An unusually high 37% of all plaintiffs who filed suit last month had filed at least once before.

And finally, New York attorney Craig B. Sanders represented more consumers than anyone else in September (51) and also has represented more consumers than any other attorney all year (429, more than a hundred above his nearest competitor), retaining the title of most active consumer attorney of the year.

Is your collection agency or call center protected
against serial litigants? Read more Here!

Complaint Statistics:

3106 consumers filed BBB complaints, 3686 consumers filed BCFP complaints, and about 1054 consumers filed lawsuits under consumer statutes from Sep 01, 2018 to Sep 30, 2018.

• 3106 BBB Complaints
• 3686 BCFP Complaints
• 638 FDCPA, 144 Class Action (22.6%)
• 248 TCPA, 72 Class Action (29.0%)
• 339 FCRA, 11 Class Action (3.2%)

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

• Of those cases, there were about 1054 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
• Of those plaintiffs, about 391, or (37%), had sued under consumer statutes before.
• Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 9102 lawsuits since 2001
• Actions were filed in 150 different US District Court branches.
• About 699 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

• 64 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
• 44 Lawsuits: Nevada District Court – Las Vegas
• 40 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
• 38 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court – Tampa
• 37 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles
• 29 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
• 29 Lawsuits: Delaware District Court – Wilmington
• 27 Lawsuits: Florida Southern District Court – Fort Lauderdale
• 27 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
• 26 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Central Islip

The most active consumer attorneys were:

• Representing 51 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
• Representing 30 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
• Representing 29 Consumers: ANTRANIG N GARIBIAN
• Representing 28 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
• Representing 26 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
• Representing 24 Consumers: TODD M FRIEDMAN
• Representing 23 Consumers: MARK A ELDRIDGE
• Representing 19 Consumers: JOSEPH SCOTT DAVIDSON
• Representing 19 Consumers: ADRIAN ROBERT BACON
• Representing 18 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN

Statistics Year to Date:
11005 total lawsuits for 2018, including:

• 7018 FDCPA
• 3476 FCRA
• 2954 TCPA

Number of Unique Plaintiffs for 2018: 10738 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

• Representing 429 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
• Representing 319 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
• Representing 295 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
• Representing 266 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN
• Representing 226 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
• Representing 202 Consumers: ELLIOT GALE
• Representing 189 Consumers: AHMAD TAYSEER SULAIMAN
• Representing 174 Consumers: TODD M FRIEDMAN
• Representing 157 Consumers: OMAR TAYSEER SULAIMAN
• Representing 156 Consumers: MARK A ELDRIDGE

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BBB Complaint Statistics:

There were a total of 3106 BBB complaints from Sep 01, 2018 to Sep 30, 2018. That is down -27.9% from last month.

The types of companies being complained about were:

• 1708 banks (55%)
• 1150 collections-agencies (37%)
• 248 credit+reporting (8%)

The categories of complaints filed were:

• 1645 Billing/Collection Issues (53%)
• 1312 Problems with Product/Service (42%)
• 76 Advertising/Sales Issues (2%)
• 51 Delivery Issues (2%)
• 22 Guarantee/Warranty Issues (1%)

The dispositions of these complaints are:

• 2414 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. (78%)
• 555 The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction. (18%)
• 109 The business failed to respond to the dispute. (4%)
• 17 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. (0%)

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BCFP Complaint Statistics:

There were 3686 complaints filed against debt collectors from Sep 01, 2018 to Sep 30, 2018.

Total number of debt collectors complained about: 815

The types of debt behind the complaints were:

• 1069 Other debt (29%)
• 813 Credit card debt (22%)
• 779 I do not know (21%)
• 568 Medical debt (15%)
• 143 Auto debt (4%)
• 97 Payday loan debt (3%)
• 88 Mortgage debt (2%)
• 73 Private student loan debt (2%)
• 56 Federal student loan debt (2%)

Here is a breakdown of complaints:

• 1655 Attempts to collect debt not owed (45%)
• 811 Written notification about debt (22%)
• 485 Communication tactics (13%)
• 342 Took or threatened to take negative or legal action (9%)
• 303 False statements or representation (8%)
• 90 Threatened to contact someone or share information improperly (2%)

The top five subissues were:

• 859 Debt is not yours (23%)
• 576 Didnt receive enough information to verify debt (16%)
• 411 Debt was result of identity theft (11%)
• 306 Debt was paid (8%)
• 284 Frequent or repeated calls (8%)

The top states complaints were filed from are:

• 517 Complaints: TX
• 418 Complaints: FL
• 400 Complaints: CA
• 223 Complaints: GA
• 194 Complaints: NY
• 126 Complaints: IL
• 125 Complaints: PA
• 101 Complaints: NJ
• 98 Complaints: AZ
• 95 Complaints: OH

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

• 2834 Closed with explanation (77%)
• 456 Closed with non-monetary relief (12%)
• 234 In progress (6%)
• 141 Untimely response (4%)
• 21 Closed with monetary relief (1%)

This includes 3494 (95%) timely responses to complaints, and 192 (5%) untimely responses.

Quick analysis: It’s a sweep! For the first time in two and a half years (Feb 2016), every category of complaint we track on a monthly basis (FDCPA, FCRA, TCPA, BCFP and even BBB) are up over the previous month. Furthermore, all three lawsuits categories (FDCPA, FCRA, TCPA) are up by significant margins (24.1%, 13.6% and 13.5% respectively). That just hasn’t happened in a really long time.

Important note: Our BBB complaint acquisition process has been wonky the last couple of months. We have it fixed, and should have much more stable data coming out from this point forward. Here is a comprehensive grid of all BBB complaints filed against debt collectors and creditors since the beginning of 2016.

In other news, putative class actions were mixed last month with 27.7% of FDCPA, 27.3% of TCPA and 5.3% of FCRA lawsuits filed that way.

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

And finally, Texas attorney Jonathan Forrest Raburn and New York attorney Craig B. Sanders each represented 45 consumers in August, though Mr. Sanders filed more lawsuits while Mr. Raburn packed more consumers into fewer lawusits as co-defendants. Mr. Sanders retains the title of most active consumer attorney of the year though, with 378 represented consumers so far in 2018.

Every category of complaint increased in this period. Is your collection business protected against complaints and lawsuits? Read more Here!

Complaint Statistics:

2586 consumers filed BBB complaints, 4416 consumers filed BCFP complaints, and about 1453 consumers filed lawsuits under consumer statutes from Aug 01, 2018 to Aug 31, 2018.

• 2586 BBB Complaints
• 4416 BCFP Complaints
• 907 FDCPA, 251 Class Action (27.7%)
• 362 TCPA, 99 Class Action (27.3%)
• 433 FCRA, 23 Class Action (5.3%)

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

• Of those cases, there were about 1453 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
• Of those plaintiffs, about 497, or (34%), had sued under consumer statutes before.
• Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 2598 lawsuits since 2001
• Actions were filed in 168 different US District Court branches.
• About 867 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

• 94 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
• 88 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
• 53 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court – Tampa
• 51 Lawsuits: Nevada District Court – Las Vegas
• 43 Lawsuits: Florida Southern District Court – Fort Lauderdale
• 42 Lawsuits: Indiana Southern District Court – Indianapolis
• 41 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles
• 38 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
• 35 Lawsuits: Texas Northern District Court – Dallas
• 33 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Central Islip

The most active consumer attorneys were:

• Representing 45 Consumers: JONATHAN FORREST RABURN
• Representing 45 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
• Representing 39 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
• Representing 35 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
• Representing 30 Consumers: ANDREW T THOMASSON
• Representing 29 Consumers: PHILIP D STERN
• Representing 29 Consumers: FRANCIS R GREENE
• Representing 29 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
• Representing 26 Consumers: ANTRANIG N GARIBIAN
• Representing 22 Consumers: JAMES ANTHONY FOLEY

Statistics Year to Date:
9963 total lawsuits for 2018, including:

• 6380 FDCPA
• 3137 FCRA
• 2706 TCPA

Number of Unique Plaintiffs for 2018: 9821 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

• Representing 378 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
• Representing 291 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
• Representing 269 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
• Representing 248 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN
• Representing 196 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
• Representing 195 Consumers: ELLIOT GALE
• Representing 189 Consumers: AHMAD TAYSEER SULAIMAN
• Representing 150 Consumers: TODD M FRIEDMAN
• Representing 149 Consumers: JEFFREY N WILENS
• Representing 145 Consumers: CELETHA CHATMAN

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BBB Complaint Statistics:

There were a total of 2586 BBB complaints from Aug 01, 2018 to Aug 31, 2018. That is up 0.3% from last month.

The types of companies being complained about were:

• 1216 banks (47%)
• 1141 collections-agencies (44%)
• 229 credit+reporting (9%)

The categories of complaints filed were:

• 1416 Billing/Collection Issues (55%)
• 1063 Problems with Product/Service (41%)
• 63 Advertising/Sales Issues (2%)
• 38 Delivery Issues (1%)
• 6 Guarantee/Warranty Issues (0%)

The dispositions of these complaints are:

• 2024 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. (78%)
• 403 The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction. (16%)
• 124 The business failed to respond to the dispute. (5%)
• 18 BBB is unable to locate the business. (1%)
• 17 The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it. (1%)

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BCFP Complaint Statistics:

There were 4416 complaints filed against debt collectors from Aug 01, 2018 to Aug 31, 2018.

Total number of debt collectors complained about: 838

The types of debt behind the complaints were:

• 1386 Other debt (31%)
• 976 Credit card debt (22%)
• 873 I do not know (20%)
• 643 Medical debt (15%)
• 155 Auto debt (4%)
• 127 Payday loan debt (3%)
• 109 Mortgage debt (2%)
• 76 Federal student loan debt (2%)
• 71 Private student loan debt (2%)

Here is a breakdown of complaints:

• 1985 Attempts to collect debt not owed (45%)
• 984 Written notification about debt (22%)
• 544 Communication tactics (12%)
• 421 Took or threatened to take negative or legal action (10%)
• 356 False statements or representation (8%)
• 126 Threatened to contact someone or share information improperly (3%)

The top five subissues were:

• 1000 Debt is not yours (23%)
• 738 Didnt receive enough information to verify debt (17%)
• 491 Debt was result of identity theft (11%)
• 388 Debt was paid (9%)
• 295 Frequent or repeated calls (7%)

The top states complaints were filed from are:

• 584 Complaints: TX
• 537 Complaints: CA
• 425 Complaints: FL
• 266 Complaints: NY
• 254 Complaints: GA
• 167 Complaints: OH
• 150 Complaints: NJ
• 142 Complaints: NC
• 136 Complaints: IL
• 124 Complaints: PA

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

• 3537 Closed with explanation (80%)
• 510 Closed with non-monetary relief (12%)
• 228 In progress (5%)
• 116 Untimely response (3%)
• 25 Closed with monetary relief (1%)

This includes 4225 (96%) timely responses to complaints, and 191 (4%) untimely responses.

You can identify consumers with a history of litigation quickly & easily with Webrecon. If you have consumers on your lists that have ever filed lawsuits under FDCPA, TCPA, FCRA, TILA or similar statutes, you’ll find out!  Visit WebRecon now for more information!

Quick analysis: Quick analysis: Summer Doldrums Continue (for Plaintiffs)

With the exception of a minor (+1.6%) bump in FCRA claims, everything was down in July again. FDCPA and TCPA (-6.0%, -2.1% respectively) and CFPB complaints (-7.2%) all continued in their sluggish performance from June.

Year-to-date, FCRA is still the only statute that is up for the year, +11.7% over this time in 2017. CFPB complaints are up as well, +13.4% over 2017. FDCPA and TCPA are both down, -7.8% and 15.9%, respectively. Interestingly enough, all three of the main statutes are up over the same month last year, just not the entire year to date (except FCRA of course).

In other news, putative class actions were mixed last month with 22.3% of FDCPA, 24.8% of TCPA and 4.2% of FCRA lawsuits filed that way.

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

And finally, Las Vegas attorney David H. Krieger knocked both Nathan Volheim and Craig B. Sanders out of the way to take the month by representing a total of 39 consumers. New York attorney Craig B. Sanders still retains the title of most active consumer attorney of the year though, with 333 represented consumers so far in 2018.

Note: We have temporarily removed BBB complaints from the grid, as we are experiencing some difficulties with their site. We should have everything updated and back in place by next month.

Complaint Statistics:

20 consumers filed BBB complaints, 4007 consumers filed BCFP complaints, and about 1255 consumers filed lawsuits under consumer statutes from Jul 01, 2018 to Jul 31, 2018.

• 20 BBB Complaints
• 4007 BCFP Complaints
• 731 FDCPA, 163 Class Action (22.3%)
• 319 TCPA, 79 Class Action (24.8%)
• 381 FCRA, 16 Class Action (4.2%)

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

• Of those cases, there were about 1255 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
• Of those plaintiffs, about 430, or (34%), had sued under consumer statutes before.
• Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 1968 lawsuits since 2001
• Actions were filed in 158 different US District Court branches.
• About 798 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

• 87 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
• 55 Lawsuits: Nevada District Court – Las Vegas
• 47 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court – Tampa
• 46 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
• 43 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
• 40 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
• 35 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles
• 33 Lawsuits: Florida Southern District Court – Fort Lauderdale
• 30 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Central Islip
• 28 Lawsuits: California Eastern District Court – Sacramento

The most active consumer attorneys were:

• Representing 39 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
• Representing 29 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
• Representing 28 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
• Representing 27 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
• Representing 21 Consumers: ELLIOT GALE
• Representing 20 Consumers: MARK A ELDRIDGE
• Representing 20 Consumers: DAVID W HEMMINGER
• Representing 19 Consumers: DAVID SCOTT KLAIN
• Representing 19 Consumers: TODD M FRIEDMAN
• Representing 18 Consumers: JOSEPH SCOTT DAVIDSON

Statistics Year to Date:
8556 total lawsuits for 2018, including:

• 5473 FDCPA
• 2704 FCRA
• 2344 TCPA

Number of Unique Plaintiffs for 2018: 8542 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

• Representing 333 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
• Representing 252 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
• Representing 234 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
• Representing 230 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN
• Representing 188 Consumers: AHMAD TAYSEER SULAIMAN
• Representing 174 Consumers: ELLIOT GALE
• Representing 167 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
• Representing 149 Consumers: JEFFREY N WILENS
• Representing 135 Consumers: CELETHA CHATMAN
• Representing 135 Consumers: OMAR TAYSEER SULAIMAN

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BCFP Complaint Statistics:

There were 4007 complaints filed against debt collectors from Jul 01, 2018 to Jul 31, 2018.

Total number of debt collectors complained about: 842

The types of debt behind the complaints were:

• 1153 Other debt (29%)
• 888 I do not know (22%)
• 876 Credit card debt (22%)
• 615 Medical debt (15%)
• 124 Auto debt (3%)
• 122 Payday loan debt (3%)
• 91 Mortgage debt (2%)
• 80 Private student loan debt (2%)
• 58 Federal student loan debt (1%)

Here is a breakdown of complaints:

• 1705 Attempts to collect debt not owed (43%)
• 1004 Written notification about debt (25%)
• 460 Communication tactics (11%)
• 371 Took or threatened to take negative or legal action (9%)
• 344 False statements or representation (9%)
• 123 Threatened to contact someone or share information improperly (3%)

The top five subissues were:

• 877 Debt is not yours (22%)
• 757 Didnt receive enough information to verify debt (19%)
• 418 Debt was result of identity theft (10%)
• 338 Debt was paid (8%)
• 280 Attempted to collect wrong amount (7%)

The top states complaints were filed from are:

• 609 Complaints: TX
• 437 Complaints: CA
• 400 Complaints: FL
• 210 Complaints: NY
• 202 Complaints: GA
• 168 Complaints: IL
• 141 Complaints: OH
• 122 Complaints: NC
• 117 Complaints: MI
• 113 Complaints: PA

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

• 3157 Closed with explanation (79%)
• 485 Closed with non-monetary relief (12%)
• 212 In progress (5%)
• 117 Untimely response (3%)
• 36 Closed with monetary relief (1%)

This includes 3802 (95%) timely responses to complaints, and 205 (5%) untimely responses.

Quick analysis: Summer slump…

Everything was down in June. FDCPA, FCRA and TCPA (-2.4%, -26.6% and -20.9%, respectively) and CFPB complaints (-11.4%) all plummeted from what had been a strong May for all categories (except CFPB complaints, which were down a hair from April, -.8%).

Year-to-date, FCRA is the only statute that is up for the year, +9.6% over this time in 2017. CFPB complaints are up as well, +16.4% over 2017. FDCPA and TCPA are both down, -9.8% and 19.4%, respectively.

After several years of aggressive growth, TCPA just has not been able to sustain its numbers this year, a fact that should bring some (albeit minor) relief to the long-beleaguered collection and marketing verticals that have been targeted by relentless class actions invoking that statute.

In other news, putative class actions were mixed last month with 26% of FDCPA, 21.2% of TCPA and 5.3% of FCRA lawsuits filed that way.

About 30% of all plaintiffs who filed suit last month had filed at least once before.

And finally, Chicago attorney Nathan C. Volheim won the month by representing a total of 40 consumers. New York attorney Craig B. Sanders has represented 305 consumers so far in 2018, making him the most active consumer attorney YTD.

Note: We have temporarily removed BBB complaints from the grid, as we are experiencing some difficulties with their site. We should have everything updated and back in place by next month.

Complaint Statistics:

457 consumers filed BBB complaints, 4240 consumers filed CFPB complaints, and about 1311 consumers filed lawsuits under consumer statutes from Jun 01, 2018 to Jun 30, 2018.

• 457 BBB Complaints
• 4240 CFPB Complaints
• 778 FDCPA, 202 Class Action (26.0%)
• 326 TCPA, 69 Class Action (21.2%)
• 375 FCRA, 20 Class Action (5.3%)

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

• Of those cases, there were about 1311 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
• Of those plaintiffs, about 399, or (30%), had sued under consumer statutes before.
• Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 5670 lawsuits since 2001
• Actions were filed in 179 different US District Court branches.
• About 784 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

• 85 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
• 63 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
• 57 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
• 50 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court – Tampa
• 36 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles
• 35 Lawsuits: Nevada District Court – Las Vegas
• 31 Lawsuits: California Eastern District Court – Sacramento
• 30 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
• 30 Lawsuits: Florida Southern District Court – Miami
• 29 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Central Islip

The most active consumer attorneys were:

• Representing 40 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
• Representing 38 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
• Representing 33 Consumers: DAVID SCOTT KLAIN
• Representing 24 Consumers: DANIEL A LOURO
• Representing 21 Consumers: OMAR TAYSEER SULAIMAN
• Representing 21 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
• Representing 21 Consumers: GEOFFREY BERNARD MCCARRELL
• Representing 20 Consumers: ANTRANIG N GARIBIAN
• Representing 19 Consumers: DAVID W HEMMINGER
• Representing 18 Consumers: TODD M FRIEDMAN

Statistics Year to Date:
7347 total lawsuits for 2018, including:

• 4742 FDCPA
• 2323 FCRA
• 2025 TCPA

Number of Unique Plaintiffs for 2018: 7417 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

• Representing 305 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
• Representing 223 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
• Representing 212 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN
• Representing 207 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
• Representing 187 Consumers: AHMAD TAYSEER SULAIMAN
• Representing 153 Consumers: ELLIOT GALE
• Representing 149 Consumers: JEFFREY N WILENS
• Representing 131 Consumers: THOMAS J CONNICK
• Representing 128 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
• Representing 118 Consumers: CELETHA CHATMAN

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CFPB Complaint Statistics:

There were 4240 complaints filed against debt collectors from Jun 01, 2018 to Jun 30, 2018.

Total number of debt collectors complained about: 808

The types of debt behind the complaints were:

• 1262 Other debt (30%)
• 964 I do not know (23%)
• 909 Credit card debt (21%)
• 632 Medical debt (15%)
• 128 Auto debt (3%)
• 127 Payday loan debt (3%)
• 87 Mortgage debt (2%)
• 77 Private student loan debt (2%)
• 54 Federal student loan debt (1%)

Here is a breakdown of complaints:

• 1951 Attempts to collect debt not owed (46%)
• 1007 Written notification about debt (24%)
• 474 Communication tactics (11%)
• 368 Took or threatened to take negative or legal action (9%)
• 312 False statements or representation (7%)
• 128 Threatened to contact someone or share information improperly (3%)

The top five subissues were:

• 1018 Debt is not yours (24%)
• 794 Didnt receive enough information to verify debt (19%)
• 482 Debt was result of identity theft (11%)
• 386 Debt was paid (9%)
• 276 Frequent or repeated calls (7%)

The top states complaints were filed from are:

• 628 Complaints: TX
• 477 Complaints: CA
• 385 Complaints: FL
• 257 Complaints: GA
• 250 Complaints: NY
• 154 Complaints: NJ
• 145 Complaints: NC
• 138 Complaints: IL
• 137 Complaints:
• 106 Complaints: PA

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

• 3165 Closed with explanation (75%)
• 520 Closed with non-monetary relief (12%)
• 357 In progress (8%)
• 177 Untimely response (4%)
• 21 Closed with monetary relief (0%)

This includes 4002 (94%) timely responses to complaints, and 238 (6%) untimely responses.

Quick analysis:

After an April of across-the-board drops in consumer complaint activity, May 2018 saw a bit of a rebound in every category except for CFPB complaints. But give those a week or two for the stragglers to come in, and we suspect those will be up as well.

Notably, FDCPA is up 10.4% and TCPA is up 23.5% – both statutes have had a rough year with declines much more common than increases. FCRA is up a huge 52.5%, which we will explain in a moment.

In other news, putative class actions were mixed last month with 25.4% of FDCPA, 27.6% of TCPA and 5.5% of FCRA lawsuits filed that way.

About 31% of all plaintiffs who filed suit last month had filed at least once before.

And finally, Southern California attorney Jeffrey N. Wilens dominated the month by representing a total of 149 consumers between three separate lawsuits filed on May 31 against Equifax. This is part of the reason FCRA suits are up a whopping 52.5% over April, but even without all of this activity FCRA would have been up almost 10%. The next most active attorney was New York’s Craig B Sanders, a frequent occupier of the top spot with 69 consumers represented for the month. Mr. Sanders has represented 288 consumers in 2018, making him the most active consumer attorney YTD.

Complaint Statistics:

3211 consumers filed BBB complaints, 4733 consumers filed CFPB complaints, and about 1449 consumers filed lawsuits under consumer statutes from May 01, 2018 to May 31, 2018.

• 3211 BBB Complaints
• 4733 CFPB Complaints
• 795 FDCPA, 202 Class Action (25.4%)
• 410 TCPA, 113 Class Action (27.6%)
• 511 FCRA, 28 Class Action (5.5%)

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

• Of those cases, there were about 1449 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
• Of those plaintiffs, about 445, or (31%), had sued under consumer statutes before.
• Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 2482 lawsuits since 2001
• Actions were filed in 175 different US District Court branches.
• About 807 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

• 119 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
• 57 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Central Islip
• 56 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
• 52 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court – Tampa
• 43 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
• 41 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
• 41 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles
• 38 Lawsuits: Nevada District Court – Las Vegas
• 30 Lawsuits: Indiana Southern District Court – Indianapolis
• 28 Lawsuits: Wisconsin Eastern District Court – Milwaukee

The most active consumer attorneys were:

• Representing 149 Consumers: JEFFREY N WILENS
• Representing 68 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
• Representing 39 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
• Representing 38 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
• Representing 32 Consumers: TODD M FRIEDMAN
• Representing 32 Consumers: DAVID M BARSHAY
• Representing 29 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN
• Representing 26 Consumers: JOHN D BLYTHIN
• Representing 26 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
• Representing 22 Consumers: ANTRANIG N GARIBIAN

Statistics Year to Date:
6102 total lawsuits for 2018, including:

• 3962 FDCPA
• 1947 FCRA
• 1696 TCPA

Number of Unique Plaintiffs for 2018: 6180 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

• Representing 288 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
• Representing 197 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN
• Representing 186 Consumers: AHMAD TAYSEER SULAIMAN
• Representing 183 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
• Representing 169 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
• Representing 149 Consumers: JEFFREY N WILENS
• Representing 138 Consumers: ELLIOT GALE
• Representing 131 Consumers: THOMAS J CONNICK
• Representing 107 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
• Representing 101 Consumers: MICHAEL JACOB WOOD

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BBB Complaint Statistics:

There were a total of 3211 BBB complaints against debt collectors and creditors from May 01, 2018 to May 31, 2018. That is up 31.4% from last month.

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CFPB Complaint Statistics:

There were 4733 complaints filed against debt collectors from May 01, 2018 to May 31, 2018.

Total number of debt collectors complained about: 869

The types of debt behind the complaints were:

• 1362 Other debt (29%)
• 1208 Credit card debt (26%)
• 914 I do not know (19%)
• 704 Medical debt (15%)
• 142 Auto debt (3%)
• 142 Payday loan debt (3%)
• 104 Mortgage debt (2%)
• 81 Federal student loan debt (2%)
• 76 Private student loan debt (2%)

Here is a breakdown of complaints:

• 2001 Attempts to collect debt not owed (42%)
• 1328 Written notification about debt (28%)
• 510 Communication tactics (11%)
• 419 False statements or representation (9%)
• 354 Took or threatened to take negative or legal action (7%)
• 121 Threatened to contact someone or share information improperly (3%)

The top five subissues were:

• 1100 Debt is not yours (23%)
• 985 Didnt receive enough information to verify debt (21%)
• 403 Debt was paid (9%)
• 402 Debt was result of identity theft (8%)
• 353 Attempted to collect wrong amount (7%)

The top states complaints were filed from are:

• 595 Complaints: TX
• 501 Complaints: FL
• 466 Complaints: CA
• 279 Complaints: NY
• 279 Complaints: GA
• 174 Complaints: IL
• 149 Complaints: OH
• 145 Complaints: NJ
• 143 Complaints:
• 137 Complaints: PA

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

• 3657 Closed with explanation (77%)
• 560 Closed with non-monetary relief (12%)
• 342 In progress (7%)
• 149 Untimely response (3%)
• 25 Closed with monetary relief (1%)

This includes 4498 (95%) timely responses to complaints, and 235 (5%) untimely responses.

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.

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.