Quick analysis: A Stunning Fall…
And we ain’t talking about the coming autumn. FDCPA, FCRA and TCPA litigation all tumbled in July, after two of the three fell in June as well. May was the last robust month for consumer litigation.
How much did the numbers fall? All three statutes were down between 20% and 40% over the previous month. In fact, we had to go all the way back to January 2015 to find the last time numbers were this low across the board.
After two straight months of slippage (with the exception of a slight increase in FCRA June over May), FDCPA is down more than 5% YTD, and TCPA down 2.6% YTD. Only FCRA posted a slight gain, up 6/10 of a point from 6.2% to 6.8% YTD.
NEW: We are excited to add BBB tracking to our monthly stats. BBB complaints against debt collectors and creditors rose quite a bit over the last month (+11.4%), but are only slightly up YTD from last year (+.9%).
CFPB complaints are continuing their 2017 rally, up 12.4% over last month and a whopping 26.9% over this time last year.
Back to litigation…
Putative class actions remain relatively stable with 21.5% of FDCPA, 15.6% of TCPA and 9.6% of FCRA lawsuits filed that way.
About 33% of all plaintiffs who filed suit last month had filed at least once before.
And finally, The Sulaiman Law Group overtakes our list of the most active consumer attorneys this month with a total of four entrants – Ahmad Sulaiman (40), Mohammed Badwan (34), Taxiarchis Hatzidimitriadis (28) and Nathan Volheim (28). New York attorney Craig B Sanders keeps the crown for representing the most consumers year-to-date (333).
| Current Month: | Previous Month: | Previous Year: |
Year to Date: | Year to Date Comp: |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 01, 2017 Jul 31, 2017 |
Jun 01, 2017 Jun 30, 2017 |
Jul 01, 2016 Jul 31, 2016 |
Jan 01, 2017 Jul 31, 2017 |
Jan 01, 2016 Jul 31, 2016 |
|||||
| BBB | 1141 | 1024 | 11.4% | 833 | 37.0% | 6584 | 6525 | 0.9% | |
| CFPB | 4144 | 3688 | 12.4% | 3062 | 35.3% | 28607 | 22550 | 26.9% | |
| FDCPA | 679 | 894 | -24.0% | 834 | -18.6% | 5936 | 6253 | -5.1% | |
| FCRA | 302 | 386 | -21.8% | 271 | 11.4% | 2419 | 2264 | 6.8% | |
| TCPA | 276 | 450 | -38.7% | 444 | -37.8% | 2792 | 2866 | -2.6% | |
Complaint Statistics:
1141 consumers filed BBB complaints, 4144 consumers filed CFPB complaints, and about 1095 consumers filed lawsuits under consumer statutes from Jul 01, 2017 to Jul 31, 2017.
- 1141 BBB Complaints
- 4144 CFPB Complaints
- 679 FDCPA, 146 Class Action (21.5%)
- 276 TCPA, 43 Class Action (15.6%)
- 302 FCRA, 29 Class Action (9.6%)
Litigation Summary (scroll down for BBB and CFPB data):
- Of those cases, there were about 1095 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
- Of those plaintiffs, about 362, or (33%), had sued under consumer statutes before.
- Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 2155 lawsuits since 2001
- Actions were filed in 138 different US District Court branches.
- About 657 different collection firms and creditors were sued.
The top courts where lawsuits were filed:
- 92 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
- 65 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
- 59 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
- 45 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court – Tampa
- 43 Lawsuits: Nevada District Court – Las Vegas
- 41 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Central Islip
- 38 Lawsuits: Indiana Southern District Court – Indianapolis
- 32 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
- 30 Lawsuits: California Southern District Court – San Diego
- 29 Lawsuits: California Northern District Court – San Jose
The most active consumer attorneys were:
- Representing 40 Consumers: AHMAD TAYSEER SULAIMAN
- Representing 34 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN
- Representing 31 Consumers: MATTHEW THOMAS BERRY
- Representing 30 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
- Representing 28 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
- Representing 28 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
- Representing 27 Consumers: ELLIOT WAYNE GALE
- Representing 22 Consumers: JOHN D BLYTHIN
- Representing 21 Consumers: SCOTT JOSEPH SAGARIA
- Representing 21 Consumers: SCOTT MATTHEW JOHNSON
Statistics Year to Date:
9217 total lawsuits for 2017, including:
- 5936 FDCPA
- 2419 FCRA
- 2792 TCPA
Number of Unique Plaintiffs for 2017: 8858 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)
The most active consumer attorneys of the year:
- Representing 333 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
- Representing 288 Consumers: AHMAD TAYSEER SULAIMAN
- Representing 247 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN
- Representing 232 Consumers: MATTHEW THOMAS BERRY
- Representing 225 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
- Representing 220 Consumers: TODD M FRIEDMAN
- Representing 218 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
- Representing 184 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
- Representing 145 Consumers: PAUL JONATHAN SIEG
- Representing 144 Consumers: ADRIAN ROBERT BACON
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BBB Complaint Statistics:
There were a total of 1141 BBB complaints against debt collectors and creditors from Jul 01, 2017 to Jul 31, 2017. That is up 11.4% from last month.
The categories of complaints filed were:
- 775 Billing/Collection Issues (68%)
- 343 Problems with Product/Service (30%)
- 18 Advertising/Sales Issues (2%)
- 3 Guarantee/Warranty Issues (0%)
- 2 Delivery Issues (0%)
The dispositions of these complaints are:
- 835 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. (73%)
- 222 The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction. (19%)
- 69 The business failed to respond to the dispute. (6%)
- 9 BBB is unable to locate the business. (1%)
- 6 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 4144 complaints filed against debt collectors from Jul 01, 2017 to Jul 31, 2017.
Total number of debt collectors complained about: 832
The types of debt behind the complaints were:
- 1528 Other debt (37%)
- 717 I do not know (17%)
- 714 Credit card debt (17%)
- 664 Medical debt (16%)
- 144 Auto debt (3%)
- 131 Mortgage debt (3%)
- 113 Payday loan debt (3%)
- 72 Federal student loan debt (2%)
- 61 Private student loan debt (1%)
Here is a breakdown of complaints:
- 1633 Attempts to collect debt not owed (39%)
- 1214 Written notification about debt (29%)
- 402 False statements or representation (10%)
- 387 Communication tactics (9%)
- 373 Took or threatened to take negative or legal action (9%)
- 135 Threatened to contact someone or share information improperly (3%)
The top five subissues were:
- 974 Didnt receive enough information to verify debt (24%)
- 948 Debt is not yours (23%)
- 358 Debt was paid (9%)
- 330 Attempted to collect wrong amount (8%)
- 235 Debt was result of identity theft (6%)
The top states complaints were filed from are:
- 532 Complaints: CA
- 524 Complaints:
- 437 Complaints: FL
- 408 Complaints: TX
- 216 Complaints: GA
- 180 Complaints: NY
- 140 Complaints: NC
- 127 Complaints: OH
- 96 Complaints: TN
- 94 Complaints: PA
The status of the month’s complaints are as follows:
- 3330 Closed with explanation (80%)
- 344 Closed with non-monetary relief (8%)
- 302 In progress (7%)
- 134 Untimely response (3%)
- 34 Closed with monetary relief (1%)
This includes 3936 (95%) timely responses to complaints, and 208 (5%) untimely responses.