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.
| Current Month: | Previous Month: | Previous Year: |
Year to Date: | Year to Date Comp: |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 01, 2018 Apr 30, 2018 |
Mar 01, 2018 Mar 31, 2018 |
Apr 01, 2017 Apr 30, 2017 |
Jan 01, 2018 Apr 30, 2018 |
Jan 01, 2017 Apr 30, 2017 |
|||||
| BBB | 1517 | 2313 | -34.4% | 5861 | -74.1% | 10649 | 23818 | -55.3% | |
| CFPB | 4742 | 5270 | -10.0% | 4225 | 12.2% | 19484 | 16651 | 17.0% | |
| FDCPA | 720 | 844 | -14.7% | 802 | -10.2% | 3167 | 3389 | -6.6% | |
| FCRA | 335 | 371 | -9.7% | 266 | 25.9% | 1436 | 1355 | 6.0% | |
| TCPA | 332 | 342 | -2.9% | 352 | -5.7% | 1286 | 1556 | -17.4% | |
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.