Quick analysis: August… same as it ever was.
With one slight exception, August continued many of the patterns that have become common this year. That exception? FDCPA lawsuits snapped a five-month losing streak in terms of month-over-month filings. Even so, it was only with a 1.4% increase, and it wasn’t enough to break the YTD trend which still dropped a bit from 12.8% last month to 13.2% this month.
Beyond FDCPA, TCPA filings were down a bit (10.2%) from the previous month, but are still up 39.7% YTD. And FCRA filings were up a lot from the previous month (39.6%) and are up 19.4% YTD.
CFPB complaint filings had a robust month as well, up just over 30% from the previous month. That helps to knock the long-time YTD trend of complaints lagging around 10% behind last year to its lowest point of 7% down from this time last year.
Fun Facts:
- For July 2016, 36% of all consumer litigation plaintiffs had sued at least once before under consumer litigation statutes.
- About 958 different companies were sued, up 7.2% over the 894 last month. And 819 different debt collectors were complained about to the CFPB, about 14.5% higher than last month’s 715.
- The percentage of suits filed as putative class actions were all over the board, with 16% for FDCPA, 20% for TCPA and only 6.9% for FCRA.
- California attorney Elliot Wayne Gale represented the most consumers for the month with 56 and California attorney Todd M. Friedman had the most consumers YTD with 289.
| Comparisons: | Current Period: | Previous Period: | Previous Year Comp: | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 01, 2016 Aug 31, 2016 |
Jul 01, 2016 Jul 31, 2016 |
Aug 01, 2015 Aug 31, 2015 |
|||
| CFPB Complaints | 3954 | 3026 | 30.7% | 3619 | 9.3% |
| FDCPA lawsuits | 844 | 832 | 1.4% | 998 | -15.4% |
| FCRA lawsuits | 377 | 270 | 39.6% | 321 | 17.4% |
| TCPA lawsuits | 395 | 440 | -10.2% | 342 | 15.5% |
| YTD CFPB Complaints | 26382 | 28372 | -7.0% | ||
| YTD FDCPA lawsuits | 7093 | 8170 | -13.2% | ||
| YTD FCRA lawsuits | 2639 | 2210 | 19.4% | ||
| YTD TCPA lawsuits | 3254 | 2330 | 39.7% | ||
Complaint Statistics:
3954 consumers filed CFPB complaints against debt collectors and about 1382 consumers filed lawsuits under consumer statutes from Aug 01, 2016 to Aug 31, 2016. Here is an approximate breakdown:
- 3954 CFPB Complaints
- 844 FDCPA, 135 Class Action (16.0%)
- 395 TCPA, 79 Class Action (20.0%)
- 377 FCRA, 26 Class Action (6.9%)
Litigation Summary (scroll down for CFPB data):
- Of those cases, there were about 1382 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
- Of those plaintiffs, about 491, or (36%), had sued under consumer statutes before.
- Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 2700 lawsuits since 2001
- Actions were filed in 160 different US District Court branches.
- About 958 different collection firms and creditors were sued.
The top courts where lawsuits were filed:
- 94 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
- 84 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Los Angeles
- 61 Lawsuits: California Northern District Court – San Jose
- 60 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
- 46 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court – Tampa
- 46 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
- 44 Lawsuits: Nevada District Court – Las Vegas
- 37 Lawsuits: Florida Southern District Court – Fort Lauderdale
- 36 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
- 35 Lawsuits: California Southern District Court – San Diego
The most active consumer attorneys were:
- Representing 56 Consumers: ELLIOT WAYNE GALE
- Representing 48 Consumers: MATTHEW THOMAS BERRY
- Representing 39 Consumers: TODD M FRIEDMAN
- Representing 31 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
- Representing 31 Consumers: JOHN D BLYTHIN
- Representing 31 Consumers: ADAM KLEIN
- Representing 28 Consumers: ADRIAN ROBERT BACON
- Representing 26 Consumers: DAVID SCOTT KLAIN
- Representing 25 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN
- Representing 25 Consumers: AHMAD TAYSEER SULAIMAN
Statistics Year to Date:
10714 total lawsuits for 2016, including:
- 7093 FDCPA
- 2639 FCRA
- 3254 TCPA
Number of Unique Plaintiffs for 2016: 9980 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)
The most active consumer attorneys of the year:
- Representing 289 Consumers: TODD M FRIEDMAN
- Representing 255 Consumers: MATTHEW THOMAS BERRY
- Representing 209 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
- Representing 200 Consumers: PAUL JONATHAN SIEG
- Representing 193 Consumers: ADRIAN ROBERT BACON
- Representing 192 Consumers: DAVID SCOTT KLAIN
- Representing 177 Consumers: SERGEI LEMBERG
- Representing 162 Consumers: MICHAEL JACOB WOOD
- Representing 159 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
- Representing 159 Consumers: CELETHA CHATMAN
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CFPB Complaint Statistics:
There were 3954 complaints filed against debt collectors from Aug 01, 2016 to Aug 31, 2016.
Total number of debt collectors complained about: 819
The types of debt behind the complaints were:
- 1284 Other (i.e. phone, health club, etc.) (32%)
- 875 Credit card (22%)
- 738 I do not know (19%)
- 574 Medical (15%)
- 134 Mortgage (3%)
- 121 Payday loan (3%)
- 105 Auto (3%)
- 67 Non-federal student loan (2%)
- 56 Federal student loan (1%)
Here is a breakdown of complaints:
- 1459 Cont’d attempts collect debt not owed (37%)
- 1306 Disclosure verification of debt (33%)
- 489 Communication tactics (12%)
- 268 False statements or representation (7%)
- 230 Improper contact or sharing of info (6%)
- 202 Taking/threatening an illegal action (5%)
The top five subissues were:
- 1044 Not given enough info to verify debt (26%)
- 813 Debt is not mine (21%)
- 422 Debt was paid (11%)
- 292 Frequent or repeated calls (7%)
- 210 Attempted to collect wrong amount (5%)
The top states complaints were filed from are:
- 498 Complaints: CA
- 437 Complaints: TX
- 415 Complaints: FL
- 224 Complaints: NY
- 204 Complaints: GA
- 137 Complaints: IL
- 119 Complaints: OH
- 107 Complaints: AZ
- 106 Complaints: NJ
- 105 Complaints: PA
The status of the month’s complaints are as follows:
- 3954 (100%)
This includes 3637 (92%) timely responses to complaints, and 317 (8%) untimely responses.
Of the company responses, consumers accepted 0 (%) of them, disputed 527 (13%) of them, and 3427 (87%) were N\A.
The top five days for complaints were:
- 248 Complaints: Thu, 08/11/2016
- 208 Complaints: Mon, 08/29/2016
- 202 Complaints: Tue, 08/16/2016
- 201 Complaints: Tue, 08/23/2016
- 186 Complaints: Tue, 08/09/2016