Quick analysis: Well, it’s done. The year 2017 ended on a bit of a whimper, with FDCPA litigation down -5.8% and TCPA (shockingly) down -9.3%. This is TCPA’s first year-over-year decline since TCPA lawsuits became more than a novelty in the late-2000’s. Only FCRA posted an increase, up +9.9% over 2016.
Here are year-over-year litigation numbers for FDCPA, FCRA and TCPA from (essentially) the beginning of time.
CFPB complaints ended the year up a strong +18.5% over 2016, though that may still tick up a bit as more complaints come through the portal. BBB complaints are nominally up over last year, +1.3%, though we do expect that number to rise a bit as well over the next few weeks. Because of the slower schedules for these two categories, full year-over-year reports will come next month.
Back to December…
For the month of December, everything was down except for CFPB complaints, though again BBB will likely add quite a bit of volume over the next few weeks and turn into a positive. FDCPA, FCRA and TCPA were all down from November (-9%, -14.3% and -18.01%, respectively)
Putative class actions were mixed last month with 23.6% of FDCPA, 22.1% of TCPA and 6% of FCRA lawsuits filed that way.
About 36% of all plaintiffs who filed suit last month had filed at least once before.
And finally, New York attorney Craig B. Sanders retained the crown as the most active consumer attorney this month by representing 81 consumers in December and for representing the most consumers year-to-date (621).
| Current Month: | Previous Month: | Previous Year: |
Year to Date: | Year to Date Comp: |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 01, 2017 Dec 31, 2017 |
Nov 01, 2017 Nov 30, 2017 |
Dec 01, 2016 Dec 31, 2016 |
Jan 01, 2017 Dec 31, 2017 |
Jan 01, 2016 Dec 31, 2016 |
|||||
| BBB | 2240 | 3373 | -33.6% | 3693 | -39.3% | 47832 | 47196 | 1.3% | |
| CFPB | 3900 | 3600 | 8.3% | 3717 | 4.9% | 48692 | 41100 | 18.5% | |
| FDCPA | 720 | 791 | -9.0% | 782 | -7.9% | 9784 | 10386 | -5.8% | |
| FCRA | 299 | 349 | -14.3% | 280 | 6.8% | 4346 | 3954 | 9.9% | |
| TCPA | 285 | 348 | -18.1% | 359 | -20.6% | 4392 | 4840 | -9.3% | |
Complaint Statistics:
2240 consumers filed BBB complaints, 3900 consumers filed CFPB complaints, and about 1126 consumers filed lawsuits under consumer statutes from Dec 01, 2017 to Dec 31, 2017.
- 2240 BBB Complaints
- 3900 CFPB Complaints
- 720 FDCPA, 170 Class Action (23.6%)
- 285 TCPA, 63 Class Action (22.1%)
- 299 FCRA, 18 Class Action (6.0%)
Litigation Summary (scroll down for BBB and CFPB data):
- Of those cases, there were about 1126 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
- Of those plaintiffs, about 400, or (36%), had sued under consumer statutes before.
- Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 3369 lawsuits since 2001
- Actions were filed in 155 different US District Court branches.
- About 792 different collection firms and creditors were sued.
The top courts where lawsuits were filed:
- 79 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Central Islip
- 77 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
- 69 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
- 48 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
- 46 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court – Tampa
- 41 Lawsuits: Michigan Eastern District Court – Detroit
- 37 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
- 30 Lawsuits: New Jersey District Court – Newark
- 29 Lawsuits: Nevada District Court – Las Vegas
- 23 Lawsuits: California Southern District Court – San Diego
The most active consumer attorneys were:
- Representing 81 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
- Representing 38 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
- Representing 37 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
- Representing 27 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
- Representing 25 Consumers: AHMAD T SULAIMAN
- Representing 23 Consumers: DANIEL A EDELMAN
- Representing 19 Consumers: DAVID M BARSHAY
- Representing 19 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN
- Representing 18 Consumers: AHMAD TAYSEER SULAIMAN
- Representing 18 Consumers: WILLIAM PEERCE HOWARD
Statistics Year to Date:
15409 total lawsuits for 2017, including:
- 9784 FDCPA
- 4346 FCRA
- 4392 TCPA
Number of Unique Plaintiffs for 2017: 14421 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)
The most active consumer attorneys of the year:
- Representing 621 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
- Representing 441 Consumers: AHMAD TAYSEER SULAIMAN
- Representing 397 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN
- Representing 344 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
- Representing 342 Consumers: MATTHEW THOMAS BERRY
- Representing 336 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
- Representing 327 Consumers: TODD M FRIEDMAN
- Representing 299 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
- Representing 261 Consumers: MICHAEL JACOB WOOD
- Representing 260 Consumers: CELETHA CHATMAN
——————————————————————————————————-
BBB Complaint Statistics:
There were a total of 2240 BBB complaints against debt collectors and creditors from Dec 01, 2017 to Dec 31, 2017. That is down -33.6% from last month.
The categories of complaints filed were:
- 1131 Billing/Collection Issues (50%)
- 790 Problems with Product/Service (35%)
- 139 Billing / Collection Issues (6%)
- 79 Advertising/Sales Issues (4%)
- 53 Delivery Issues (2%)
- 27 Problems with Product / Service (1%)
- 15 Guarantee/Warranty Issues (1%)
- 4 (0%)
- 2 Advertising / Sales Issues (0%)
The dispositions of these complaints are:
- 774 The Business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer did not accept the response, OR BBB has not heard back from the consumer as to their satisfaction. (35%)
- 698 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. (31%)
- 393 The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction. (18%)
- 218 (10%)
- 126 The business failed to respond to the dispute. (6%)
- 19 BBB is unable to locate the business. (1%)
- 12 The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it. (1%)
——————————————————————————————————-
CFPB Complaint Statistics:
There were 3900 complaints filed against debt collectors from Dec 01, 2017 to Dec 31, 2017.
Total number of debt collectors complained about: 844
The types of debt behind the complaints were:
- 1268 Other debt (33%)
- 741 I do not know (19%)
- 709 Credit card debt (18%)
- 680 Medical debt (17%)
- 143 Payday loan debt (4%)
- 122 Mortgage debt (3%)
- 113 Auto debt (3%)
- 67 Private student loan debt (2%)
- 57 Federal student loan debt (1%)
Here is a breakdown of complaints:
- 1529 Attempts to collect debt not owed (39%)
- 997 Written notification about debt (26%)
- 503 Communication tactics (13%)
- 431 Took or threatened to take negative or legal action (11%)
- 348 False statements or representation (9%)
- 92 Threatened to contact someone or share information improperly (2%)
The top five subissues were:
- 867 Debt is not yours (22%)
- 704 Didnt receive enough information to verify debt (18%)
- 346 Debt was paid (9%)
- 272 Didnt receive notice of right to dispute (7%)
- 262 Frequent or repeated calls (7%)
The top states complaints were filed from are:
- 439 Complaints: TX
- 435 Complaints: CA
- 420 Complaints: FL
- 241 Complaints: GA
- 234 Complaints: NY
- 157 Complaints: NC
- 153 Complaints: IL
- 118 Complaints: OH
- 117 Complaints: NJ
- 109 Complaints: PA
The status of the month’s complaints are as follows:
- 3036 Closed with explanation (78%)
- 407 Closed with non-monetary relief (10%)
- 307 In progress (8%)
- 126 Untimely response (3%)
- 24 Closed with monetary relief (1%)
This includes 3699 (95%) timely responses to complaints, and 201 (5%) untimely responses.