… must come down. After the first across-the-board rise in every complaint category (since early 2016) in August, we are now looking at a significant across-the-board drop in every category for September. How significant? Every category is down by double digits, from 16.8% (BCFP complaints) to 31.5% (TCPA complaints).
What does this mean? Usually, not very much. Year-over-year, these numbers have tended to be remarkably consistent. However, if trends hold, litigation this year is on track to be about 5% lower than the last several years. That is not huge, but it is not insignificant either.
In other news, putative class actions were mixed last month with 22.6% of FDCPA, 29% of TCPA and 3.2% of FCRA lawsuits filed that way.
An unusually high 37% of all plaintiffs who filed suit last month had filed at least once before.
And finally, New York attorney Craig B. Sanders represented more consumers than anyone else in September (51) and also has represented more consumers than any other attorney all year (429, more than a hundred above his nearest competitor), retaining the title of most active consumer attorney of the year.
| Current Month: | Previous Month: | Previous Year: |
Year to Date: | Year to Date Comp: |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 01, 2018 Sep 30, 2018 |
Aug 01, 2018 Aug 31, 2018 |
Sep 01, 2017 Sep 30, 2017 |
Jan 01, 2018 Sep 30, 2018 |
Jan 01, 2017 Sep 30, 2017 |
|||||
| BBB | 3106 | 4306 | -27.9% | 4101 | -24.3% | 36144 | 36602 | -1.3% | |
| BCFP | 3686 | 4431 | -16.8% | 3595 | 2.5% | 40926 | 37128 | 10.2% | |
| FDCPA | 638 | 907 | -29.7% | 720 | -11.4% | 7018 | 7515 | -6.6% | |
| FCRA | 339 | 433 | -21.7% | 556 | -39.0% | 3476 | 3327 | 4.5% | |
| TCPA | 248 | 362 | -31.5% | 298 | -16.8% | 2954 | 3455 | -14.5% | |
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Complaint Statistics:
3106 consumers filed BBB complaints, 3686 consumers filed BCFP complaints, and about 1054 consumers filed lawsuits under consumer statutes from Sep 01, 2018 to Sep 30, 2018.
- 3106 BBB Complaints
- 3686 BCFP Complaints
- 638 FDCPA, 144 Class Action (22.6%)
- 248 TCPA, 72 Class Action (29.0%)
- 339 FCRA, 11 Class Action (3.2%)
Litigation Summary (scroll down for BBB and BCFP data):
- Of those cases, there were about 1054 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
- Of those plaintiffs, about 391, or (37%), had sued under consumer statutes before.
- Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 9102 lawsuits since 2001
- Actions were filed in 150 different US District Court branches.
- About 699 different collection firms and creditors were sued.
The top courts where lawsuits were filed:
- 64 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
- 44 Lawsuits: Nevada District Court – Las Vegas
- 40 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
- 38 Lawsuits: Florida Middle District Court – Tampa
- 37 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles
- 29 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
- 29 Lawsuits: Delaware District Court – Wilmington
- 27 Lawsuits: Florida Southern District Court – Fort Lauderdale
- 27 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
- 26 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Central Islip
The most active consumer attorneys were:
- Representing 51 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
- Representing 30 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
- Representing 29 Consumers: ANTRANIG N GARIBIAN
- Representing 28 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
- Representing 26 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
- Representing 24 Consumers: TODD M FRIEDMAN
- Representing 23 Consumers: MARK A ELDRIDGE
- Representing 19 Consumers: JOSEPH SCOTT DAVIDSON
- Representing 19 Consumers: ADRIAN ROBERT BACON
- Representing 18 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN
Statistics Year to Date:
11005 total lawsuits for 2018, including:
- 7018 FDCPA
- 3476 FCRA
- 2954 TCPA
Number of Unique Plaintiffs for 2018: 10738 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)
The most active consumer attorneys of the year:
- Representing 429 Consumers: CRAIG B SANDERS
- Representing 319 Consumers: NATHAN CHARLES VOLHEIM
- Representing 295 Consumers: TAXIARCHIS HATZIDIMITRIADIS
- Representing 266 Consumers: MOHAMMED OMAR BADWAN
- Representing 226 Consumers: DAVID H KRIEGER
- Representing 202 Consumers: ELLIOT GALE
- Representing 189 Consumers: AHMAD TAYSEER SULAIMAN
- Representing 174 Consumers: TODD M FRIEDMAN
- Representing 157 Consumers: OMAR TAYSEER SULAIMAN
- Representing 156 Consumers: MARK A ELDRIDGE
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BBB Complaint Statistics:
There were a total of 3106 BBB complaints from Sep 01, 2018 to Sep 30, 2018. That is down -27.9% from last month.
The types of companies being complained about were:
- 1708 banks (55%)
- 1150 collections-agencies (37%)
- 248 credit+reporting (8%)
The categories of complaints filed were:
- 1645 Billing/Collection Issues (53%)
- 1312 Problems with Product/Service (42%)
- 76 Advertising/Sales Issues (2%)
- 51 Delivery Issues (2%)
- 22 Guarantee/Warranty Issues (1%)
The dispositions of these complaints are:
- 2414 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. (78%)
- 555 The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction. (18%)
- 109 The business failed to respond to the dispute. (4%)
- 17 BBB is unable to locate the business. (1%)
- 11 The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it. (0%)
——————————————————————————————————-
BCFP Complaint Statistics:
There were 3686 complaints filed against debt collectors from Sep 01, 2018 to Sep 30, 2018.
Total number of debt collectors complained about: 815
The types of debt behind the complaints were:
- 1069 Other debt (29%)
- 813 Credit card debt (22%)
- 779 I do not know (21%)
- 568 Medical debt (15%)
- 143 Auto debt (4%)
- 97 Payday loan debt (3%)
- 88 Mortgage debt (2%)
- 73 Private student loan debt (2%)
- 56 Federal student loan debt (2%)
Here is a breakdown of complaints:
- 1655 Attempts to collect debt not owed (45%)
- 811 Written notification about debt (22%)
- 485 Communication tactics (13%)
- 342 Took or threatened to take negative or legal action (9%)
- 303 False statements or representation (8%)
- 90 Threatened to contact someone or share information improperly (2%)
The top five subissues were:
- 859 Debt is not yours (23%)
- 576 Didnt receive enough information to verify debt (16%)
- 411 Debt was result of identity theft (11%)
- 306 Debt was paid (8%)
- 284 Frequent or repeated calls (8%)
The top states complaints were filed from are:
- 517 Complaints: TX
- 418 Complaints: FL
- 400 Complaints: CA
- 223 Complaints: GA
- 194 Complaints: NY
- 126 Complaints: IL
- 125 Complaints: PA
- 101 Complaints: NJ
- 98 Complaints: AZ
- 95 Complaints: OH
The status of the month’s complaints are as follows:
- 2834 Closed with explanation (77%)
- 456 Closed with non-monetary relief (12%)
- 234 In progress (6%)
- 141 Untimely response (4%)
- 21 Closed with monetary relief (1%)
This includes 3494 (95%) timely responses to complaints, and 192 (5%) untimely responses.