Quick analysis: Everything is up, everything is down, and a split decision.
If we had spent the past 11.5 years analyzing consumer litigation stats by the neatness of the designs they make on our nifty grid, I think we would be ready to shut it down because we have a winner.
In the month of July 2020, everything was up from June 2020. And, everything was down (by double digits, no less!) from last year July. And, in the YTD category we have a split decision, with CFPB complaints and FDCPA down, and FCRA and TCPA up.
In other news, putative class actions represented 22.5% of FDCPA, 54.72%(!) of TCPA and 3.7% of FCRA lawsuits filed last month.
About 35% of all plaintiffs who filed suit last month had filed at least once before.
And finally, new Georgia attorney Matthew J Landreau 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 255. 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: |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 01, 2020 Jul 31, 2020 |
Jun 01, 2020 Jun 30, 2020 |
Jul 01, 2019 Jul 31, 2019 |
Jan 01, 2020 Jul 31, 2020 |
Jan 01, 2019 Jul 31, 2019 |
|||||
| CFPB | 4855 | 4501 | 7.9% | 7011 | -30.8% | 37638 | 40933 | -8.0% | |
| FDCPA | 631 | 630 | 0.2% | 707 | -10.7% | 4283 | 5104 | -16.1% | |
| FCRA | 436 | 371 | 17.5% | 514 | -15.2% | 3005 | 2893 | 3.9% | |
| TCPA | 236 | 184 | 28.3% | 302 | -21.9% | 2346 | 2095 | 12.0% | |
Complaint Statistics:
4855 consumers filed CFPB complaints, and about 1172 consumers filed lawsuits under consumer statutes from Jul 01, 2020 to Jul 31, 2020.
- 4855 CFPB Complaints
- 631 FDCPA, 142 Class Action (22.5%)
- 236 TCPA, 129 Class Action (54.7%)
- 436 FCRA, 16 Class Action (3.7%)
Litigation Summary (scroll down for CFPB data):
- Of those cases, there were about 1172 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
- Of those plaintiffs, about 410, or (35%), had sued under consumer statutes before.
- Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 2614 lawsuits since 2001
- Actions were filed in 166 different US District Court branches.
- About 779 different collection firms and creditors were sued.
The top courts where lawsuits were filed:
- 79 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
- 52 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles
- 51 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
- 38 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
- 36 Lawsuits: Wisconsin Eastern District Court – Milwaukee
- 34 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court – Tampa
- 33 Lawsuits: Florida Southern District Court – Fort Lauderdale
- 31 Lawsuits: Nevada District Court – Las Vegas
- 30 Lawsuits: California Southern District Court – San Diego
- 29 Lawsuits: Indiana Southern District Court – Indianapolis
The most active consumer attorneys were:
- Representing 33 Consumers: MATTHEW J LANDREAU
- Representing 27 Consumers: MATTHEW THOMAS BERRY
- Representing 25 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
- Representing 25 Consumers: JOHN D BLYTHIN
- Representing 22 Consumers: THOMAS JOHN PATTI
- Representing 22 Consumers: SHAWN JAFFER
- Representing 21 Consumers: EDWARD Y KROUB
- Representing 20 Consumers: TODD M FRIEDMAN
- Representing 20 Consumers: MARK A ELDRIDGE
- Representing 19 Consumers: ALEJANDRO EMMANUEL FIGUEROA
Statistics Year to Date:
7790 total lawsuits for 2020, including:
- 4283 FDCPA
- 3005 FCRA
- 2346 TCPA
Number of Unique Plaintiffs for 2020: 8031 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)
The most active consumer attorneys of the year:
- Representing 361 Consumers: REBECCA EVANS
- Representing 255 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
- Representing 238 Consumers: NICOLE ROCHELLE LEWIS
- Representing 165 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
- Representing 163 Consumers: TODD M FRIEDMAN
- Representing 155 Consumers: MICHAEL ZHANG
- Representing 131 Consumers: ADRIAN ROBERT BACON
- Representing 131 Consumers: MATTHEW THOMAS BERRY
- Representing 128 Consumers: ADAM KLEIN
- Representing 125 Consumers: DAVID M BARSHAY
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CFPB Complaint Statistics:
There were 4855 complaints filed against debt collectors from Jul 01, 2020 to Jul 31, 2020.
Total number of debt collectors complained about: 791
The types of debt behind the complaints were:
- 1321 Credit card debt (27%)
- 1204 Other debt (25%)
- 1129 I do not know (23%)
- 697 Medical debt (14%)
- 201 Payday loan debt (4%)
- 174 Auto debt (4%)
- 57 Mortgage debt (1%)
- 42 Private student loan debt (1%)
- 30 Federal student loan debt (1%)
Here is a breakdown of complaints:
- 2655 Attempts to collect debt not owed (55%)
- 1047 Written notification about debt (22%)
- 489 False statements or representation (10%)
- 312 Communication tactics (6%)
- 288 Took or threatened to take negative or legal action (6%)
- 64 Threatened to contact someone or share information improperly (1%)
The top five subissues were:
- 1249 Debt is not yours (26%)
- 838 Debt was result of identity theft (17%)
- 737 Didnt receive enough information to verify debt (15%)
- 481 Debt was paid (10%)
- 405 Attempted to collect wrong amount (8%)
The top states complaints were filed from are:
- 870 Complaints: TX
- 495 Complaints: FL
- 495 Complaints: CA
- 347 Complaints: GA
- 236 Complaints: NY
- 165 Complaints: PA
- 162 Complaints: OH
- 150 Complaints: IL
- 148 Complaints: NC
- 117 Complaints: NJ
The status of the month’s complaints are as follows:
- 3929 Closed with explanation (81%)
- 432 Closed with non-monetary relief (9%)
- 365 In progress (8%)
- 99 Untimely response (2%)
- 30 Closed with monetary relief (1%)
This includes 4702 (97%) timely responses to complaints, and 153 (3%) untimely responses.