FDCPA Lawsuits Decline Slightly in First Half of July

Lawsuits filed against ARM companies claiming violations of the FDCPA and other consumer statutes decreased slightly in the first two weeks of July compared to the second half of June.

The following statistics are provided to the ARM industry courtesy of WebRecon LLC.

FDCPA and Other Consumer Lawsuit Statistics, July 1-15, 2011

There were about 524 lawsuits filed under consumer statutes in the first half of July 2011. Here is an approximate breakdown:

• 460 FDCPA
• 70 FCRA
• 25 TILA
• 12 RESPA

Summary

• Of those cases, there were about 536 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
• Of those plaintiffs, about 184 had sued under consumer statutes before.
• Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 1102 lawsuits since 2001
• Actions were filed in 125 different US District Court branches.
• About 539 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

• 26 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
• 25 Lawsuits: Colorado District Court – Denver
• 21 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
• 20 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles
• 20 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
• 19 Lawsuits: New Jersey District Court – Newark
• 18 Lawsuits: California Southern District Court – San Diego
• 16 Lawsuits: Michigan Eastern District Court – Detroit
• 15 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
• 14 Lawsuits: Missouri Western District Court – Kansas City

The most active consumer attorneys were:

• Representing 24 Consumers: Jack Dennis Card, Jr.
• Representing 18 Consumers: Adam Jon Fishbein
• Representing 14 Consumers: Darin Shaw
• Representing 14 Consumers: David Michael Larson
• Representing 14 Consumers: Mark N. Foster
• Representing 11 Consumers: Todd Michael Friedman
• Representing 11 Consumers: Andrew Ira Glenn
• Representing 11 Consumers: J. Mark Meinhardt
• Representing 10 Consumers: Amy Lynn Bennecoff
• Representing 10 Consumers: Novlette Rosemarie Kidd

Statistics Year to Date

6899 total lawsuits for 2011, including:

• 6348 FDCPA
• 692 FCRA
• 645 TILA
• 228 TCPA

Number of Unique Plaintiffs: 6983 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

• Representing 198 Consumers: David Michael Larson
• Representing 173 Consumers: Craig Thor Kimmel
• Representing 164 Consumers: Jack Dennis Card, Jr.
• Representing 126 Consumers: Andrew Ira Glenn
• Representing 115 Consumers: Darin Shaw

Creditors and collection firms use WebRecon’s services to easily segregate predictably litigious consumers from their databases. A significant percentage of consumer litigation is initiated by the same consumers over and over again, and screening them out of the general population can reduce lawsuits by as much as a third.