Quick analysis: The Red Zone…
There’s a lot of red on August’s consumer complaint grid. CFPB complaints and FDCPA, TCPA and FCRA complaints were all down from July; all but FCRA were all down from August 2019; and CFPB complaints and FCPA complaints are both down YTD. FCRA and TCPA are still up for the year, continuing long term trends.
In other news, putative class actions represented 15.4% of FDCPA, 57.3%(!) of TCPA and 3.8% of FCRA lawsuits filed last month.
About 33% of all plaintiffs who filed suit last month had filed at least once before.
And finally, Georgia attorney Matthew Thomas Berry takes the top spot for representing 33 consumers throughout the month and New York’s Craig B. Sanders has filed the most for the year with 265. That YTD stat excludes attorneys Nicole Rochelle Lewis and Rebecca Evans who crammed hundreds of plaintiffs into a few TCPA lawsuits earlier this year.
| Current Month: | Previous Month: | Previous Year: |
Year to Date: | Year to Date Comp: |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 01, 2020 Aug 31, 2020 |
Jul 01, 2020 Jul 31, 2020 |
Aug 01, 2019 Aug 31, 2019 |
Jan 01, 2020 Aug 31, 2020 |
Jan 01, 2019 Aug 31, 2019 |
|||||
| CFPB | 4743 | 4890 | -3.0% | 8501 | -44.2% | 42425 | 45621 | -7.0% | |
| FDCPA | 532 | 631 | -15.7% | 638 | -16.6% | 4815 | 5742 | -16.1% | |
| FCRA | 418 | 436 | -4.1% | 415 | 0.7% | 3423 | 3308 | 3.5% | |
| TCPA | 225 | 236 | -4.7% | 261 | -13.8% | 2571 | 2356 | 9.1% | |
Complaint Statistics:
4743 consumers filed CFPB complaints, and about 1055 consumers filed lawsuits under consumer statutes from Aug 01, 2020 to Aug 31, 2020.
- 4743 CFPB Complaints
- 532 FDCPA, 82 Class Action (15.4%)
- 225 TCPA, 129 Class Action (57.3%)
- 418 FCRA, 16 Class Action (3.8%)
Litigation Summary (scroll down for CFPB data):
- Of those cases, there were about 1055 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
- Of those plaintiffs, about 349, or (33%), had sued under consumer statutes before.
- Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 1963 lawsuits since 2001
- Actions were filed in 155 different US District Court branches.
- About 767 different collection firms and creditors were sued.
The top courts where lawsuits were filed:
- 63 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
- 57 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles
- 49 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
- 40 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court – Tampa
- 39 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
- 30 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
- 28 Lawsuits: Nevada District Court – Las Vegas
- 25 Lawsuits: Indiana Southern District Court – Indianapolis
- 22 Lawsuits: Minnesota District Court – Dmn
- 21 Lawsuits: California Northern District Court – San Francisco
The most active consumer attorneys were:
- Representing 33 Consumers: MATTHEW THOMAS BERRY
- Representing 27 Consumers: DAVID J PHILIPPS
- Representing 24 Consumers: TODD M FRIEDMAN
- Representing 21 Consumers: EDWARD Y KROUB
- Representing 19 Consumers: ADRIAN ROBERT BACON
- Representing 19 Consumers: CORY STEVEN FEIN
- Representing 19 Consumers: CHRISTOPHER NEIL ARMOR
- Representing 17 Consumers: MARY ELIZABETH PHILIPPS
- Representing 16 Consumers: ALEJANDRO EMMANUEL FIGUEROA
- Representing 15 Consumers: JOHN THOMAS STEINKAMP
Statistics Year to Date:
8835 total lawsuits for 2020, including:
- 4815 FDCPA
- 3423 FCRA
- 2571 TCPA
Number of Unique Plaintiffs for 2020: 8976 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)
The most active consumer attorneys of the year:
- Representing 361 Consumers: REBECCA EVANS
- Representing 265 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
- Representing 238 Consumers: NICOLE ROCHELLE LEWIS
- Representing 187 Consumers: TODD M FRIEDMAN
- Representing 179 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
- Representing 164 Consumers: MATTHEW THOMAS BERRY
- Representing 155 Consumers: MICHAEL ZHANG
- Representing 150 Consumers: ADRIAN ROBERT BACON
- Representing 133 Consumers: EDWARD Y KROUB
- Representing 131 Consumers: JOSEPH LEWIS ERKENBRACK
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CFPB Complaint Statistics:
There were 4743 complaints filed against debt collectors from Aug 01, 2020 to Aug 31, 2020.
Total number of debt collectors complained about: 784
The types of debt behind the complaints were:
- 1266 Other debt (27%)
- 1172 Credit card debt (25%)
- 1120 I do not know (24%)
- 777 Medical debt (16%)
- 166 Auto debt (3%)
- 108 Payday loan debt (2%)
- 71 Mortgage debt (1%)
- 45 Private student loan debt (1%)
- 18 Federal student loan debt (0%)
Here is a breakdown of complaints:
- 2563 Attempts to collect debt not owed (54%)
- 1069 Written notification about debt (23%)
- 382 False statements or representation (8%)
- 348 Took or threatened to take negative or legal action (7%)
- 312 Communication tactics (7%)
- 69 Threatened to contact someone or share information improperly (1%)
The top five subissues were:
- 1228 Debt is not yours (26%)
- 805 Debt was result of identity theft (17%)
- 775 Didnt receive enough information to verify debt (16%)
- 441 Debt was paid (9%)
- 327 Attempted to collect wrong amount (7%)
The top states complaints were filed from are:
- 629 Complaints: TX
- 538 Complaints: CA
- 466 Complaints: FL
- 401 Complaints: GA
- 286 Complaints: NY
- 166 Complaints: PA
- 156 Complaints: MA
- 151 Complaints: OH
- 130 Complaints: NJ
- 127 Complaints: IL
The status of the month’s complaints are as follows:
- 3855 Closed with explanation (81%)
- 381 In progress (8%)
- 380 Closed with non-monetary relief (8%)
- 98 Untimely response (2%)
- 29 Closed with monetary relief (1%)
This includes 4585 (97%) timely responses to complaints, and 158 (3%) untimely responses.