Quick analysis: Sooo…. do you remember in January when we told you that the 4925 CFPB complaints filed that month blew past the previous record of 4648 CFPB complaints filed in March 2017? Well, it has happened again with 5225 complaints filed in March 2018, eclipsing January’s record of 4925.
Beyond that, we saw an interesting inversion from recent litigation trends with FDCPA (+7.1%) and TCPA (+15.2%) up, and FCRA (-11.9%) down from the previous month. In spite of that, year-to-date trends on all three statutes are holding steady with FDCPA (-5.4%) and TCPA (20.8%) down, and FCRA (+1%) up, if only nominally.
In other news, putative class actions were mixed last month with 20.7% of FDCPA, 22.5% of TCPA and 4.6% of FCRA lawsuits filed that way.
About 34% 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 95(!) consumers in January and 195 so far year-to-date.
| Current Month: | Previous Month: | Previous Year: |
Year to Date: | Year to Date Comp: |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 01, 2018 Mar 31, 2018 |
Feb 01, 2018 Feb 28, 2018 |
Mar 01, 2017 Mar 31, 2017 |
Jan 01, 2018 Mar 31, 2018 |
Jan 01, 2017 Mar 31, 2017 |
|||||
| BBB | 2114 | 3157 | -33.0% | 6729 | -68.6% | 8646 | 17687 | -51.1% | |
| CFPB | 5229 | 4486 | 16.6% | 4648 | 12.5% | 14689 | 12426 | 18.2% | |
| FDCPA | 845 | 789 | 7.1% | 942 | -10.3% | 2448 | 2587 | -5.4% | |
| FCRA | 371 | 421 | -11.9% | 407 | -8.8% | 1101 | 1090 | 1.0% | |
| TCPA | 342 | 297 | 15.2% | 430 | -20.5% | 954 | 1204 | -20.8% | |
Complaint Statistics:
2114 consumers filed BBB complaints, 5229 consumers filed CFPB complaints, and about 1352 consumers filed lawsuits under consumer statutes from Mar 01, 2018 to Mar 31, 2018.
- 2114 BBB Complaints
- 5229 CFPB Complaints
- 845 FDCPA, 175 Class Action (20.7%)
- 342 TCPA, 77 Class Action (22.5%)
- 371 FCRA, 17 Class Action (4.6%)
Litigation Summary (scroll down for BBB and CFPB data):
- Of those cases, there were about 1352 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
- Of those plaintiffs, about 460, or (34%), had sued under consumer statutes before.
- Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 4973 lawsuits since 2001
- Actions were filed in 154 different US District Court branches.
- About 792 different collection firms and creditors were sued.
The top courts where lawsuits were filed:
- 119 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
- 70 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Central Islip
- 65 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
- 52 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court – Tampa
- 50 Lawsuits: California Eastern District Court – Sacramento
- 45 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles
- 44 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
- 34 Lawsuits: Nevada District Court – Las Vegas
- 25 Lawsuits: Wisconsin Eastern District Court – Milwaukee
- 25 Lawsuits: New York Southern District Court – Foley Square
The most active consumer attorneys were:
- Representing 95 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
- Representing 58 Consumers: AHMAD TAYSEER SULAIMAN
- Representing 50 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN
- Representing 42 Consumers: ELLIOT GALE
- Representing 36 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
- Representing 34 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
- Representing 31 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
- Representing 28 Consumers: TODD M FRIEDMAN
- Representing 24 Consumers: SARAH MARGARET BARNES
- Representing 24 Consumers: MICHAEL JACOB WOOD
Statistics Year to Date:
3639 total lawsuits for 2018, including:
- 2448 FDCPA
- 1101 FCRA
- 954 TCPA
Number of Unique Plaintiffs for 2018: 3741 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)
The most active consumer attorneys of the year:
- Representing 197 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
- Representing 133 Consumers: AHMAD TAYSEER SULAIMAN
- Representing 130 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN
- Representing 129 Consumers: THOMAS J CONNICK
- Representing 107 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
- Representing 99 Consumers: ELLIOT GALE
- Representing 95 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
- Representing 75 Consumers: SARAH MARGARET BARNES
- Representing 75 Consumers: MICHAEL JACOB WOOD
- Representing 75 Consumers: CELETHA CHATMAN
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BBB Complaint Statistics:
There were a total of 2114 BBB complaints against debt collectors and creditors from Mar 01, 2018 to Mar 31, 2018. That is down -33.0% from last month.
The categories of complaints filed were:
- 1255 Billing/Collection Issues (59%)
- 726 Problems with Product/Service (34%)
- 59 Advertising/Sales Issues (3%)
- 36 Delivery Issues (2%)
- 28 (1%)
- 10 Guarantee/Warranty Issues (0%)
The dispositions of these complaints are:
- 1451 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. (69%)
- 487 The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction. (23%)
- 150 The business failed to respond to the dispute. (7%)
- 15 The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it. (1%)
- 10 BBB is unable to locate the business. (0%)
- 1 (0%)
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CFPB Complaint Statistics:
There were 5229 complaints filed against debt collectors from Mar 01, 2018 to Mar 31, 2018.
Total number of debt collectors complained about: 934
The types of debt behind the complaints were:
- 1627 Other debt (31%)
- 1079 I do not know (21%)
- 1075 Credit card debt (21%)
- 885 Medical debt (17%)
- 162 Payday loan debt (3%)
- 145 Auto debt (3%)
- 109 Mortgage debt (2%)
- 81 Federal student loan debt (2%)
- 66 Private student loan debt (1%)
Here is a breakdown of complaints:
- 2259 Attempts to collect debt not owed (43%)
- 1330 Written notification about debt (25%)
- 584 Communication tactics (11%)
- 487 Took or threatened to take negative or legal action (9%)
- 426 False statements or representation (8%)
- 143 Threatened to contact someone or share information improperly (3%)
The top five subissues were:
- 1306 Debt is not yours (25%)
- 962 Didnt receive enough information to verify debt (18%)
- 510 Debt was paid (10%)
- 361 Debt was result of identity theft (7%)
- 354 Attempted to collect wrong amount (7%)
The top states complaints were filed from are:
- 660 Complaints: TX
- 621 Complaints: CA
- 525 Complaints: FL
- 353 Complaints: GA
- 316 Complaints: NY
- 230 Complaints: IL
- 176 Complaints: NJ
- 175 Complaints: OH
- 148 Complaints: PA
- 146 Complaints:
The status of the month’s complaints are as follows:
- 4182 Closed with explanation (80%)
- 648 Closed with non-monetary relief (12%)
- 231 In progress (4%)
- 139 Untimely response (3%)
- 29 Closed with monetary relief (1%)
This includes 4968 (95%) timely responses to complaints, and 261 (5%) untimely responses.