WebRecon Dec 2023 Stats & Year in Review

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Quick analysis: Down December & Year in Review

The final stats of 2023 are in and for the first time since June, they show the big three statutes (TCPA -4.3%, FDCPA -.3%, FCRA -14.1%) all down from the previous month. CFPB complaints ended the month up +9.4%.

It’s been another wild year of swings for all of the big three, with two of them (FDCPA -8.2%, FCRA -.9%) ending the year down while TCPA (+9.4%) staged somewhat of a roaring comeback after two years of drops. CFPB complaints ended the year up +2.1% over 2022.

Here are a couple of graphs that show the evolution of consumer complaints over the last four years.

This one is the same data as above, but presented differently.

And here is the CFPB year-over-year data.

In other news, putative class actions represented 6.6% of FDCPA, 57.1% of TCPA and 2.8% of FCRA lawsuits filed last month. About 40% of all plaintiffs who filed suit last month had filed at least once before. And finally, Delray Beach, FL attorney Jennifer Gomes Simil (out of Jibrael Hindi’s firm) gets her first crack at the top spot for representing the most consumers in December (19) while Atlanta attorney Matthew Thomas Berry seals his position as the most active consumer attorney of the year with 188 consumers represented in all of 2023.

	Current Month:	Previous Month:		Previous Year:		Year to Date:	Year to Date Comp:
	Dec 01, 2023 Dec 31, 2023	Nov 01, 2023 Nov 30, 2023		Dec 01, 2022 Dec 31, 2022		Jan 01, 2023 Dec 31, 2023	Jan 01, 2022 Dec 31, 2022

CFPB	5954	5444	9.4%	4839	23.0%	68706	67324	2.1%

FDCPA	365	366	-0.3%	299	22.1%	4165	4535	-8.2%
FCRA	428	498	-14.1%	458	-6.6%	5587	5635	-0.9%
TCPA	112	117	-4.3%	96	16.7%	1683	1539	9.4%

Complaint Statistics:

5954 consumers filed CFPB complaints, and about 744 consumers filed lawsuits under consumer statutes from Dec 01, 2023 to Dec 31, 2023.

5954 CFPB Complaints
365 FDCPA, 24 Class Action (6.6%)
112 TCPA, 64 Class Action (57.1%)
428 FCRA, 12 Class Action (2.8%)

Litigation Summary (scroll down for CFPB data):

Of those cases, there were about 744 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
Of those plaintiffs, about 300, or (40%), had sued under consumer statutes before.
Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 2624 lawsuits since 2001
Actions were filed in 135 different US District Court branches.
About 507 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

53 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
41 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
30 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court – Tampa
28 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
24 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles
21 Lawsuits: Florida Southern District Court – Miami
21 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court – Orlando
21 Lawsuits: Indiana Southern District Court – Indianapolis
20 Lawsuits: Texas Northern District Court – Dallas
18 Lawsuits: Arizona District Court – Phoenix

The most active consumer attorneys were:

Representing 19 Consumers: JENNIFER GOMES SIMIL
Representing 16 Consumers: OCTAVIO GOMEZ
Representing 15 Consumers: MATTHEW THOMAS BERRY
Representing 14 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
Representing 13 Consumers: JOEL SPENCER HALVORSEN
Representing 12 Consumers: ELLIOT ELO
Representing 11 Consumers: ALEXANDER JAMES ADDUCCI TAYLOR
Representing 10 Consumers: JONATHAN ALEXANDER HEEPS
Representing 9 Consumers: JIBRAEL S HINDI
Representing 9 Consumers: CHRISTOPHER NEIL ARMOR

Statistics Year to Date:
9966 total lawsuits for 2023, including:

4165 FDCPA
5587 FCRA
1683 TCPA

Number of Unique Plaintiffs for 2023: 8657 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

Representing 188 Consumers: MATTHEW THOMAS BERRY
Representing 181 Consumers: OCTAVIO GOMEZ
Representing 148 Consumers: JOEL SPENCER HALVORSEN
Representing 131 Consumers: CHRISTOPHER NEIL ARMOR
Representing 124 Consumers: JOSEPH POWELL MCCLELLAND
Representing 124 Consumers: SHAWN SHAWN JAFFER
Representing 115 Consumers: DAVID J PHILIPPS
Representing 110 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
Representing 101 Consumers: JOHN THOMAS STEINKAMP
Representing 99 Consumers: YITZCHAK ZELMAN

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CFPB Complaint Statistics:

There were 5954 complaints filed against debt collectors from Dec 01, 2023 to Dec 31, 2023.

Total number of debt collectors complained about: 756

The types of debt behind the complaints were:

1934 I do not know (32%)
1452 Credit card debt (24%)
697 Other debt (12%)
459 Medical debt (8%)
427 Rental debt (7%)
416 Telecommunications debt (7%)
305 Auto debt (5%)
114 Payday loan debt (2%)
58 Mortgage debt (1%)
52 Federal student loan debt (1%)
40 Private student loan debt (1%)

Here is a breakdown of complaints:

2854 Attempts to collect debt not owed (48%)
1616 Written notification about debt (27%)
495 Took or threatened to take negative or legal action (8%)
422 False statements or representation (7%)
393 Communication tactics (7%)
95 Electronic communications (2%)
79 Threatened to contact someone or share information improperly (1%)

The top five subissues were:

1378 Debt is not yours (23%)
1339 Didnt receive enough information to verify debt (22%)
978 Debt was result of identity theft (16%)
405 Debt was paid (7%)
335 Attempted to collect wrong amount (6%)

The top states complaints were filed from are:

850 Complaints: CA
702 Complaints: TX
675 Complaints: FL
449 Complaints: NY
382 Complaints: GA
222 Complaints: NC
189 Complaints: NJ
186 Complaints: IL
172 Complaints: PA
156 Complaints: VA

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

3866 Closed with explanation (65%)
1212 In progress (20%)
775 Closed with non-monetary relief (13%)
80 Untimely response (1%)
21 Closed with monetary relief (0%)

This includes 5823 (98%) timely responses to complaints, and 131 (2%) untimely responses.