Quick analysis: Keep on keeping on.
February 2019 showed the new year is, so far, continuing the trends from 2018. FCRA, CFPB complaints are up. TCPA, FDCPA complaints are down.
BBB reporting lags too far behind the other categories to make any sense in the grid, but year over year complaints against creditors and debt collectors are growing very aggressively.
In other news, putative class actions were pretty typical last month with 21.5% of FDCPA, 30.3% of TCPA and 6.5% of FCRA lawsuits filed that way.
About 32% of all plaintiffs who filed suit last month had filed at least once before.
And finally, for the second month in a row Delaware FCRA attorney Antranig Garibian represented more consumers than anyone else (49). He holds the crown for most lawsuits of the year as well, with 100 consumers represented.
Is your collection agency or call center protected
against serial litigants? Read more Here!
| Current Month: | Previous Month: | Previous Year: |
Year to Date: | Year to Date Comp: |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 01, 2019 Feb 28, 2019 |
Jan 01, 2019 Jan 31, 2019 |
Feb 01, 2018 Feb 28, 2018 |
Jan 01, 2019 Feb 28, 2019 |
Jan 01, 2018 Feb 28, 2018 |
|||||
| BBB | 1011 | 3008 | -66.4% | 6307 | -84.0% | 4019 | 12252 | -67.2% | |
| BCFP | 3731 | 3163 | 18.0% | 4534 | -17.7% | 6894 | 9530 | -27.7% | |
| FDCPA | 660 | 717 | -7.9% | 789 | -16.3% | 1377 | 1603 | -14.1% | |
| FCRA | 386 | 349 | 10.6% | 421 | -8.3% | 735 | 730 | 0.7% | |
| TCPA | 264 | 302 | -12.6% | 297 | -11.1% | 566 | 612 | -7.5% | |
Complaint Statistics:
1011 consumers filed BBB complaints, 3731 consumers filed BCFP complaints, and about 1169 consumers filed lawsuits under consumer statutes from Feb 01, 2019 to Feb 28, 2019.
- 1011 BBB Complaints
- 3731 BCFP Complaints
- 660 FDCPA, 142 Class Action (21.5%)
- 264 TCPA, 80 Class Action (30.3%)
- 386 FCRA, 25 Class Action (6.5%)
Litigation Summary (scroll down for BBB and BCFP data):
- Of those cases, there were about 1169 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
- Of those plaintiffs, about 379, or (32%), had sued under consumer statutes before.
- Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 1832 lawsuits since 2001
- Actions were filed in 163 different US District Court branches.
- About 765 different collection firms and creditors were sued.
The top courts where lawsuits were filed:
- 65 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
- 47 Lawsuits: Delaware District Court – Wilmington
- 44 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
- 43 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
- 42 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court – Tampa
- 40 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles
- 36 Lawsuits: Indiana Southern District Court – Indianapolis
- 34 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
- 34 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Central Islip
- 32 Lawsuits: New Jersey District Court – Newark
The most active consumer attorneys were:
- Representing 49 Consumers: ANTRANIG N GARIBIAN
- Representing 28 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
- Representing 26 Consumers: MITCHELL L PASHKIN
- Representing 25 Consumers: JONATHAN FORREST RABURN
- Representing 23 Consumers: YAAKOV SAKS
- Representing 22 Consumers: MICHAEL PAUL SMITH
- Representing 22 Consumers: MELISSA LYNN ENGLISH
- Representing 22 Consumers: MEGAN AILEEN BENEVENTO
- Representing 22 Consumers: VERONICA BYAM NANNIS
- Representing 22 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
Statistics Year to Date:
-
2284 total lawsuits for 2019, including:
- 1377 FDCPA
- 735 FCRA
- 566 TCPA
Number of Unique Plaintiffs for 2019: 2336 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)
The most active consumer attorneys of the year:
- Representing 100 Consumers: ANTRANIG N GARIBIAN
- Representing 61 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
- Representing 52 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
- Representing 50 Consumers: YAAKOV SAKS
- Representing 44 Consumers: DAVID SCOTT KLAIN
- Representing 43 Consumers: MITCHELL L PASHKIN
- Representing 42 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
- Representing 41 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
- Representing 38 Consumers: DAVID W HEMMINGER
- Representing 37 Consumers: JOHN THOMAS STEINKAMP
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Is your collection agency or call center protected
against serial litigants? Read more Here!
BBB Complaint Statistics:
There were a total of 1011 BBB complaints from Feb 01, 2019 to Feb 28, 2019. That is down -66.4% from last month.
The types of companies being complained about were:
- 757 collections-agencies (75%)
- 134 credit+reporting (13%)
- 120 banks (12%)
The categories of complaints filed were:
- 751 Billing/Collection Issues (74%)
- 235 Problems with Product/Service (23%)
- 16 Advertising/Sales Issues (2%)
- 6 Delivery Issues (1%)
- 3 Guarantee/Warranty Issues (0%)
The dispositions of these complaints are:
- 677 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. (67%)
- 291 The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction. (29%)
- 21 The business failed to respond to the dispute. (2%)
- 18 BBB is unable to locate the business. (2%)
- 4 The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it. (0%)
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BCFP Complaint Statistics:
There were 3731 complaints filed against debt collectors from Feb 01, 2019 to Feb 28, 2019.
Total number of debt collectors complained about: 757
The types of debt behind the complaints were:
- 1074 Other debt (29%)
- 855 Credit card debt (23%)
- 753 I do not know (20%)
- 609 Medical debt (16%)
- 132 Auto debt (4%)
- 117 Payday loan debt (3%)
- 70 Federal student loan debt (2%)
- 63 Mortgage debt (2%)
- 58 Private student loan debt (2%)
Here is a breakdown of complaints:
- 1669 Attempts to collect debt not owed (45%)
- 763 Written notification about debt (20%)
- 462 Communication tactics (12%)
- 367 Took or threatened to take negative or legal action (10%)
- 365 False statements or representation (10%)
- 105 Threatened to contact someone or share information improperly (3%)
The top five subissues were:
- 862 Debt is not yours (23%)
- 510 Didnt receive enough information to verify debt (14%)
- 387 Debt was result of identity theft (10%)
- 350 Debt was paid (9%)
- 303 Attempted to collect wrong amount (8%)
The top states complaints were filed from are:
- 505 Complaints: TX
- 413 Complaints: CA
- 366 Complaints: FL
- 210 Complaints: GA
- 201 Complaints: NY
- 159 Complaints: IL
- 128 Complaints: OH
- 116 Complaints: NC
- 103 Complaints: VA
- 90 Complaints: PA
The status of the month’s complaints are as follows:
- 2774 Closed with explanation (74%)
- 441 In progress (12%)
- 422 Closed with non-monetary relief (11%)
- 75 Untimely response (2%)
- 19 Closed with monetary relief (1%)
- This includes 3606 (97%) timely responses to complaints, and 125 (3%) untimely responses.