Litigation Analysis
Everything was up in 2025, year ends with more litigation
December ended with two of the three main statutes up for the month and everything up for the year over 2024. TCPA was the only December holdout, falling just two suits below November's total (-.9%), while FDCPA (+36.3%) and FCRA (+15.6%) were both way up from November. CFPB complaints (+11.7%) against creditors and debt collectors were also up
For the full year 2025, everything was up: TCPA (+.8%), FDCPA (+7.8%) and FCRA (+37.4%), while CFPB complaints against creditors and debt collectors almost doubled, increasing from over 159k in 2024 to over 302k in 2025.
In other news, putative class actions represented 9% of FDCPA, 68% of TCPA and 1.3% of FCRA lawsuits filed last month. TCPA class actions are still extraordinarily high, historically speaking. About 44% of all plaintiffs who filed suit last month had filed at least once before. And finally, South Florida attorney Gerald Lane (from The Law Offices of Jibrael S. Hindi) continued for an eleventh straight month to represent both the most consumers in October (84) as well as YTD (820).
Complaint Statistics:
29618 consumers filed CFPB complaints, and about 1168 consumers filed lawsuits under consumer statutes from Dec 01, 2025 to Dec 31, 2025.
- 29618 CFPB Complaints
- 458 FDCPA, 41 Class Action (9.0%)
- 222 TCPA, 151 Class Action (68.0%)
- 749 FCRA, 10 Class Action (1.3%)
Litigation Summary (scroll down for CFPB data):
- Of those cases, there were about 1168 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
- Of those plaintiffs, about 516, or (44%), had sued under consumer statutes before.
- Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 6426 lawsuits since 2001
- Actions were filed in 152 different US District Court branches.
- About 750 different collection firms and creditors were sued.
The top courts where lawsuits were filed:
- 84 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court - Atlanta
- 77 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court - Chicago
- 51 Lawsuits: California Central District Court - Western Division - Los Angeles
- 47 Lawsuits: Florida Southern District Court - Fort Lauderdale
- 47 Lawsuits: Florida Southern District Court - Miami
- 45 Lawsuits: Texas Southern District Court - Houston
- 41 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court - Orlando
- 41 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court - Tampa
- 36 Lawsuits: California Southern District Court - San Diego
- 32 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court - Philadelphia
The most active consumer attorneys were:
- Representing 84 Consumers: GERALD DONALD LANE
- Representing 48 Consumers: ZANE CHARLES HEDAYA
- Representing 31 Consumers: MITCHELL DAVID HANSEN
- Representing 24 Consumers: SAMUEL JOSEPH AWAD
- Representing 16 Consumers: AHREN A TILLER
- Representing 15 Consumers: ANTHONY PARONICH
- Representing 15 Consumers: JEFF LOHMAN
- Representing 13 Consumers: OCTAVIO GOMEZ
- Representing 13 Consumers: JENNA DAKROUB
- Representing 12 Consumers: DAVID J PHILIPPS
Statistics Year to Date:
13620 total lawsuits for 2025, including:
- 4534 FDCPA
- 8369 FCRA
- 2810 TCPA
Number of Unique Plaintiffs for 2025: 11407 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)
The most active consumer attorneys of the year:
- Representing 820 Consumers: GERALD DONALD LANE
- Representing 287 Consumers: ZANE CHARLES HEDAYA
- Representing 260 Consumers: ANTHONY PARONICH
- Representing 215 Consumers: OCTAVIO GOMEZ
- Representing 180 Consumers: FAARIS KAMAL UDDIN
- Representing 132 Consumers: JONATHAN ALEXANDER HEEPS
- Representing 126 Consumers: DAVID J PHILIPPS
- Representing 114 Consumers: MARK A CAREY
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CFPB Complaint Statistics:
There were 29618 complaints filed against debt collectors from Dec 01, 2025 to Dec 31, 2025.
Total number of debt collectors complained about: 1165
The types of debt behind the complaints were:
- 18867 I do not know (64%)
- 4097 Other debt (14%)
- 3271 Credit card debt (11%)
- 986 Rental debt (3%)
- 836 Telecommunications debt (3%)
- 667 Medical debt (2%)
- 511 Auto debt (2%)
- 216 Payday loan debt (1%)
- 67 Private student loan debt (0%)
- 58 Federal student loan debt (0%)
- 42 Mortgage debt (0%)
Here is a breakdown of complaints:
- 10716 Took or threatened to take negative or legal action (36%)
- 9985 Attempts to collect debt not owed (34%)
- 4548 Written notification about debt (15%)
- 2938 False statements or representation (10%)
- 783 Communication tactics (3%)
- 433 Electronic communications (1%)
- 215 Threatened to contact someone or share information improperly (1%)
The top five subissues were:
- 10115 Threatened or suggested your credit would be damaged (34%)
- 5629 Debt is not yours (19%)
- 3476 Debt was result of identity theft (12%)
- 2778 Attempted to collect wrong amount (9%)
- 2634 Didnt receive enough information to verify debt (9%)
The top states complaints were filed from are:
- 4657 Complaints: TX
- 3369 Complaints: FL
- 3174 Complaints: CA
- 2581 Complaints: GA
- 2013 Complaints: AZ
- 1071 Complaints: NC
- 1020 Complaints: NY
- 1010 Complaints: SC
- 866 Complaints: PA
- 845 Complaints: IL
The status of the month’s complaints are as follows:
- 17459 Closed with explanation (59%)
- 8485 In progress (29%)
- 3071 Closed with non-monetary relief (10%)
- 579 Untimely response (2%)
- 24 Closed with monetary relief (0%)
This includes 28814 (97%) timely responses to complaints, and 804 (3%) untimely responses.
