Quick analysis: As the year gets ready to close out, consumer complaint data is staying pretty consistent with patterns established early on.
BBB and BCFP complaints have both dramatically increased in 2018 (ignore the red on the “current month” column of the grid, the numbers for those two categories are never really all in until 30-60 days after the end of the month). BBB complaints are up +14.43% over 2017 YTD and BCFP complaints are up +9.45% over 2017 YTD.
Consistent with most of this year’s trending FCRA is up over last month (+7.3%) and last year (+4.1%), while FDCPA and TCPA are both down (FDCPA -7.9% from Oct, -6.8% YTD and TCPA -16.2% from Oct, -12.6% YTD).
In other news, putative class actions were mixed last month with 25.8% of FDCPA, 26% of TCPA and 5.8% of FCRA lawsuits filed that way.
About 31% of all plaintiffs who filed suit last month had filed at least once before.
And finally, Chicago attorney Nathan Volheim represented more consumers than anyone else in November (37) while New York attorney Craig Sanders has represented more consumers than any other attorney all year (447), retaining the title of most active consumer attorney of the year. Incidentally. Mr. Volheim is second on that list, having represented 389 consumer YTD.
| Current Month: | Previous Month: | Previous Year: |
Year to Date: | Year to Date Comp: |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 01, 2018 Nov 30, 2018 |
Oct 01, 2018 Oct 31, 2018 |
Nov 01, 2017 Nov 30, 2017 |
Jan 01, 2018 Nov 30, 2018 |
Jan 01, 2017 Nov 30, 2017 |
|||||
| BBB | 1308 | 4349 | -69.9% | 4403 | -70.3% | 55829 | 52048 | 7.3% | |
| BCFP | 3196 | 4116 | -22.4% | 3611 | -11.5% | 48294 | 44814 | 7.8% | |
| FDCPA | 679 | 737 | -7.9% | 791 | -14.2% | 8434 | 9048 | -6.8% | |
| FCRA | 380 | 354 | 7.3% | 349 | 8.9% | 4210 | 4044 | 4.1% | |
| TCPA | 285 | 340 | -16.2% | 348 | -18.1% | 3579 | 4095 | -12.6% | |
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Complaint Statistics:
1308 consumers filed BBB complaints, 3196 consumers filed BCFP complaints, and about 1159 consumers filed lawsuits under consumer statutes from Nov 01, 2018 to Nov 30, 2018.
- 1308 BBB Complaints
- 3196 BCFP Complaints
- 679 FDCPA, 175 Class Action (25.8%)
- 285 TCPA, 74 Class Action (26.0%)
- 380 FCRA, 22 Class Action (5.8%)
Litigation Summary (scroll down for BBB and BCFP data):
- Of those cases, there were about 1159 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
- Of those plaintiffs, about 362, or (31%), had sued under consumer statutes before.
- Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 1883 lawsuits since 2001
- Actions were filed in 168 different US District Court branches.
- About 784 different collection firms and creditors were sued.
The top courts where lawsuits were filed:
- 64 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
- 51 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
- 50 Lawsuits: New Jersey District Court – Newark
- 44 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles
- 39 Lawsuits: Nevada District Court – Las Vegas
- 36 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
- 34 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
- 30 Lawsuits: Indiana Southern District Court – Indianapolis
- 29 Lawsuits: Michigan Eastern District Court – Detroit
- 27 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court – Tampa
The most active consumer attorneys were:
- Representing 37 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
- Representing 36 Consumers: SERGEI LEMBERG
- Representing 34 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
- Representing 27 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
- Representing 24 Consumers: DANIEL ZEMEL
- Representing 22 Consumers: DAVID SCOTT KLAIN
- Representing 21 Consumers: YAAKOV SAKS
- Representing 18 Consumers: DAVID W HEMMINGER
- Representing 17 Consumers: ANTRANIG N GARIBIAN
- Representing 15 Consumers: TODD M FRIEDMAN
Statistics Year to Date:
13362 total lawsuits for 2018, including:
- 8434 FDCPA
- 4210 FCRA
- 3579 TCPA
Number of Unique Plaintiffs for 2018: 12864 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)
The most active consumer attorneys of the year:
- Representing 447 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
- Representing 389 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
- Representing 360 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
- Representing 282 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN
- Representing 275 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
- Representing 212 Consumers: ELLIOT GALE
- Representing 205 Consumers: TODD M FRIEDMAN
- Representing 192 Consumers: ANTRANIG N GARIBIAN
- Representing 189 Consumers: DAVID SCOTT KLAIN
- Representing 189 Consumers: AHMAD TAYSEER SULAIMAN
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BBB Complaint Statistics:
There were a total of 1308 BBB complaints from Nov 01, 2018 to Nov 30, 2018. That is down -69.9% from last month.
The types of companies being complained about were:
- 648 banks (50%)
- 502 collections-agencies (38%)
- 158 credit+reporting (12%)
The categories of complaints filed were:
- 715 Billing/Collection Issues (55%)
- 539 Problems with Product/Service (41%)
- 31 Advertising/Sales Issues (2%)
- 19 Delivery Issues (1%)
- 4 Guarantee/Warranty Issues (0%)
The dispositions of these complaints are:
- 931 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. (71%)
- 300 The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction. (23%)
- 44 The business failed to respond to the dispute. (3%)
- 27 BBB is unable to locate the business. (2%)
- 6 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 3196 complaints filed against debt collectors from Nov 01, 2018 to Nov 30, 2018.
Total number of debt collectors complained about: 745
The types of debt behind the complaints were:
- 913 Other debt (29%)
- 704 I do not know (22%)
- 684 Credit card debt (21%)
- 530 Medical debt (17%)
- 109 Auto debt (3%)
- 89 Payday loan debt (3%)
- 68 Mortgage debt (2%)
- 54 Federal student loan debt (2%)
- 45 Private student loan debt (1%)
Here is a breakdown of complaints:
- 1503 Attempts to collect debt not owed (47%)
- 629 Written notification about debt (20%)
- 419 Communication tactics (13%)
- 311 Took or threatened to take negative or legal action (10%)
- 264 False statements or representation (8%)
- 70 Threatened to contact someone or share information improperly (2%)
The top five subissues were:
- 761 Debt is not yours (24%)
- 453 Didnt receive enough information to verify debt (14%)
- 432 Debt was result of identity theft (14%)
- 256 Debt was paid (8%)
- 210 Attempted to collect wrong amount (7%)
The top states complaints were filed from are:
- 482 Complaints: TX
- 352 Complaints: CA
- 259 Complaints: FL
- 227 Complaints: GA
- 162 Complaints: NY
- 119 Complaints: IL
- 107 Complaints:
- 96 Complaints: NJ
- 91 Complaints: PA
- 89 Complaints: VA
The status of the month’s complaints are as follows:
- 2402 Closed with explanation (75%)
- 396 Closed with non-monetary relief (12%)
- 282 In progress (9%)
- 97 Untimely response (3%)
- 19 Closed with monetary relief (1%)
This includes 3059 (96%) timely responses to complaints, and 137 (4%) untimely responses.