Quick analysis: Here’s a novel twist on recent history… FDCPA (+18.7%), TCPA (+24.4%) and FCRA(+25%) numbers, as well as CFPB complaints (+28.5%) against debt collectors, were all up – by double digit percentages – in March.

Even so, FDCPA (-19.7%) and TCPA (-43.8%) were both down year-to-date from 2020. FCRA (+5.7%) and CFPB complaints (+42.9%) are both up YTD. That CFPB complaint growth is remarkable, and worth watching as the year rolls on.

In other news, putative class actions represented 14.7% of FDCPA, 31.7% of TCPA and 4.3% of FCRA lawsuits filed last month.

About 30% of all plaintiffs who filed suit last month had filed at least once before.

And finally, a longtime familiar name in consumer litigation has worked its way to the top of the list for most active consumer attorney of the month, I believe for the first time: Amy Lynn Benecoff Ginsburg from the PA firm Kimmel & Silverman represented 34 consumers last month. Los Angeles attorney Todd M. Friedman still holds the title of the most active consumer attorney of the year so far with 66 consumers represented, but Ginsburg is hot on his trail with 65 cases YTD.

Current Month: Previous Month: Previous
Year:		 Year to Date: Year to
Date Comp:
Mar 01, 2021
Mar 31, 2021		 Feb 01, 2021
Feb 28, 2021		 Mar 01, 2020
Mar 31, 2020		 Jan 01, 2021
Mar 31, 2021		 Jan 01, 2020
Mar 31, 2020
CFPB  6783 5279 28.5% 4205 61.3% 17074 11948 42.9%
FDCPA  559 471 18.7% 613 -8.8% 1522 1895 -19.7%
FCRA  515 412 25.0% 409 25.9% 1388 1313 5.7%
TCPA  199 160 24.4% 254 -21.7% 598 1064 -43.8%

 

Complaint Statistics:

6783 consumers filed CFPB complaints, and about 1189 consumers filed lawsuits under consumer statutes from Mar 01, 2021 to Mar 31, 2021.

  • 6783 CFPB Complaints
  • 559 FDCPA, 82 Class Action (14.7%)
  • 199 TCPA, 63 Class Action (31.7%)
  • 515 FCRA, 22 Class Action (4.3%)

Litigation Summary (scroll down for CFPB data):

  • Of those cases, there were about 1189 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
  • Of those plaintiffs, about 358, or (30%), had sued under consumer statutes before.
  • Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 2668 lawsuits since 2001
  • Actions were filed in 159 different US District Court branches.
  • About 761 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

  • 65 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court – Tampa
  • 64 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles
  • 57 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
  • 54 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
  • 48 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
  • 37 Lawsuits: California Southern District Court – San Diego
  • 34 Lawsuits: Florida Southern District Court – Fort Lauderdale
  • 32 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
  • 25 Lawsuits: New Jersey District Court – Newark
  • 23 Lawsuits: Indiana Southern District Court – Indianapolis

The most active consumer attorneys were:

  • Representing 34 Consumers: AMY LYNN BENNECOFF GINSBURG
  • Representing 20 Consumers: KYLE W SCHUMACHER
  • Representing 19 Consumers: WILLIAM THOMAS HOOVER
  • Representing 18 Consumers: MATTHEW THOMAS BERRY
  • Representing 17 Consumers: YOSEF STEINMETZ
  • Representing 16 Consumers: DAVID M BARSHAY
  • Representing 16 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
  • Representing 16 Consumers: DAVID J PHILIPPS
  • Representing 15 Consumers: DAVID W HEMMINGER
  • Representing 14 Consumers: SUBHAN TARIQ

Statistics Year to Date:
3166 total lawsuits for 2021, including:

  • 1522 FDCPA
  • 1388 FCRA
  • 598 TCPA

Number of Unique Plaintiffs for 2021: 3129 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

  • Representing 66 Consumers: TODD M FRIEDMAN
  • Representing 65 Consumers: AMY LYNN BENNECOFF GINSBURG
  • Representing 62 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
  • Representing 56 Consumers: ADRIAN ROBERT BACON
  • Representing 45 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
  • Representing 45 Consumers: MATTHEW THOMAS BERRY
  • Representing 43 Consumers: DAVID W HEMMINGER
  • Representing 42 Consumers: YOSEF STEINMETZ
  • Representing 41 Consumers: KYLE W SCHUMACHER
  • Representing 40 Consumers: DAVID M BARSHAY

——————————————————————————————————-
CFPB Complaint Statistics:

There were 6783 complaints filed against debt collectors from Mar 01, 2021 to Mar 31, 2021.

Total number of debt collectors complained about: 900

The types of debt behind the complaints were:

  • 2000 Credit card debt (29%)
  • 1589 Other debt (23%)
  • 1381 I do not know (20%)
  • 1140 Medical debt (17%)
  • 290 Auto debt (4%)
  • 182 Payday loan debt (3%)
  • 91 Mortgage debt (1%)
  • 68 Private student loan debt (1%)
  • 42 Federal student loan debt (1%)

Here is a breakdown of complaints:

  • 3626 Attempts to collect debt not owed (53%)
  • 1664 Written notification about debt (25%)
  • 515 Took or threatened to take negative or legal action (8%)
  • 495 False statements or representation (7%)
  • 378 Communication tactics (6%)
  • 105 Threatened to contact someone or share information improperly (2%)

The top five subissues were:

  • 1872 Debt is not yours (28%)
  • 1197 Didnt receive enough information to verify debt (18%)
  • 1111 Debt was result of identity theft (16%)
  • 535 Debt was paid (8%)
  • 431 Didnt receive notice of right to dispute (6%)

The top states complaints were filed from are:

  • 806 Complaints: FL
  • 802 Complaints: TX
  • 658 Complaints: CA
  • 515 Complaints: GA
  • 386 Complaints: NY
  • 305 Complaints: MA
  • 254 Complaints: VA
  • 207 Complaints: IL
  • 180 Complaints: PA

The status of the month’s complaints are as follows:

  • 5502 Closed with explanation (81%)
  • 564 In progress (8%)
  • 558 Closed with non-monetary relief (8%)
  • 135 Untimely response (2%)
  • 24 Closed with monetary relief (0%)

This includes 6553 (97%) timely responses to complaints, and 230 (3%) untimely responses.

WebRecon LLC is a part of the Americloud Holdings LLC family of companies. (855) WEB-RECON

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Individual Search Engine


Instantly and easily search our proprietary database for any lawsuit participant – Plaintiff, Defendant or Attorney.

In the results, we’ll show you the full consumer litigation history of any participant, including the “docket data” (who, what, why, where, when) and – in many cases – we can even provide a copy of their actual filed lawsuits.

You can also search by phone, date range, federal/state, class action, court, statute, etc. We offer a ton of flexibility to get you the exact search result you are looking for.

The Litigant Alert Ongoing Monitoring Process


Just like our one-time batch process, but without the whole “one time” thing.

When one of your consumers files new litigation against anyone in the future, you should be the first to know. Our monitoring service can make that happen.

WebRecon can monitor your entire database (or any segment of it) for future instances of consumer litigation filed by the very consumers you are working with, right now!

It is simple to add new consumers to the watchlist, remove inactive accounts, download full reports, etc.

Best of all, we only charge you for the volume of your monitoring database – not the frequency of the searches. Search daily, weekly, every Tuesday and Friday, the 15th of each month, whatever – it is totally up to you! You won’t pay a penny more.

The Litigant Alert One-Time Batch Process


This is our flagship service. Find out why hundreds of companies won’t contact any consumers before running them through WebRecon’s Litigant Alert.

This process identifies consumers with a history of litigation quickly & easily. If they have ever filed lawsuits under FDCPA, TCPA, FCRA or similar statutes, you’ll find out here. 

WebRecon’s proprietary database is simply the most comprehensive collection of dangerous consumer litigation data in existence. 

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Litigation Context Search


This is really cool.

Our primary search engine is really designed to search for parties to litigation. Need to know more about a consumer plaintiff? That’s easy. Defendant? Check. Lawyer? No problem.

But if you need to find all 1099C lawsuits filed in July 2020… not so much.

Which is why we developed the Context Search. We have pulled out and indexed the full text from over 140k consumer lawsuits and made them available to you in a search engine, with more than 1000 new lawsuits added each month. Use it to search the text of filed litigation so you can easily identify those hard-to-define trends and cases worth following.

The Litigious Consumer Phone Scrub


Would you knowingly dial a number attached to a consumer with a history of litigation? Of course not.

But thousands of companies do just that, every single day. If you’d like to know who they are, simply review the court dockets. They are the ones getting sued the most.

Sure, you can stop dialing consumers. But your marketing and operations teams might not be too excited about that plan.

Another idea? Identify the consumers most likely to sue you, based on previous litigation histories, and just don’t call them.

Identify high-risk phones quickly & easily, before you expose yourself to unnecessary risk.

Workers Comp Scrub


Workers Comp-inspired FDCPA lawsuits are growing aggressively, particularly in Florida. Only WebRecon can tell you who in your database may have a Florida Worker’s Comp case filed that could trigger litigation against you.

You can’t stop 100% of all lawsuits, but if you collect medical in Florida and you don’t have a process in place to show the court that you have a way to check every file against the Workers Comp database, then you have lost the case before it even begins.

Knock these suits out of the park with the Workers Comp Scrub.

Our Monthly Client Newsletter with The Litigant Hotsheet


Anyone can get our guest newsletter, but only clients get the version with the Litigant Hotsheet –  identifying the most active consumer Plaintiffs filing suit in jurisdictions around the country each month. Grab a coffee, shut your door and open your database to make sure you are doing all you can to stay safe.

Individual Vendor Consumer Complaint Search


Just like Vendor Monitoring, but without the monitoring. Search any business’s history of consumer complaints (Litigation, CFPB, BBB, State AG) with the click of a button! Great for on-the-fly gut checks of the companies you do business with.

Vendor Monitoring


Through vicarious liability, you can be held accountable for the bad behavior of your vendors. If they abuse consumers, for all intents and purposes, so do you. This is a big freakin’ deal!

But fear not, friend. WebRecon can track consumer litigation, CFPB, BBB and State AG Office complaints against the companies you do business with.

When a new complaint of any kind is filed against any of the companies you are monitoring, we’ll automatically push a report out to you with all of the publicly available details so you can react accordingly and if necessary, protect your interests.

API Access


We offer two powerful APIs to businesses that communicate with consumers:

  • The primary Litigious Consumer Scrub uses a combination of name, geography (and optionally SSN) to identify consumers who have filed lawsuits in the past.
  • The Litigious Consumer Phone Scrub pulls every phone number from our proprietary database of litigants and runs your phones against ours.

These APIs allow you to check your data against our database on the fly. Clients love using this to handle risk management without missing a beat in their daily workflow.