The Smell of Freshly Cut Grass?and FDCPA Lawsuits

Tom Sizer is Director of Collections Product Management at LexisNexis Risk Solutions.

I have a confession to make.  Even though I am in the corporate world and work at my desk all day, I really would rather be somewhere else.  I’d rather be working on my acreage riding my John Deere. I keep telling my boss that some of my best work is done while I’m cutting my grass; sniffing Kentucky Blue grass clippings up my nose generates some of my best ideas.

For example, in 2007 I was discussing a product idea with a CTO of a collection agency.  He was adamant about LexisNexis helping him to fend off numerous lawsuits from debtors based on what he considered frivolous Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) violations.  He told me that in the prior month he had paid over $10,000 in legal fees as a result of settling a FDCPA violation lawsuit threat. 

I brushed him off and moved forward with other “more important” product ideas.  Later, while sitting on my Deere and listening to Dolly Parton on my iPod, I realized that we were in a perfect position to help ARM companies with this problem. 

LexisNexis has been providing case law information to our customers since 1973.  Virtually every law firm in the United States receives a daily feed of U.S. Federal Case Law and related information.  Surely a product could be tailored that mines for cases claiming violations of the FDCPA, Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), I thought.

Amazingly, we discovered that 18% of FDCPA, FCRA and TCPA suits filed are from prior plaintiffs. That meant that we could identify individual debtors that are likely to sue again. Subscribers to the service could have names removed from their call lists that showed up as repeat filers, limiting their exposure to those most likely to file lawsuits. So Litigious Debtor was born.

And not a second too soon; in the first four months of this year, more than 600 cases claiming FDCPA violations were filed each month, on average. That’s up from 455 per month in 2008.

There is a lot of demand for this type of product in the marketplace right now. In fact, we have numerous competitors offering the same service.

It’s amazing how everything comes into focus while sitting on a tractor.

About LexisNexis Risk Solutions
LexisNexis® Risk Solutions is a natural extension of the core competencies and technologies proven in the LexisNexis online products from the past 30 years. LexisNexis Risk Solutions builds on the LexisNexis tradition as a trusted provider and custodian of quality information, and leverages new cutting-edge technology, unique data and advanced scoring analytics to create total solutions to address client needs.

LexisNexis Risk Solutions is specifically designed to serve the multi-billion dollar risk information industry, which comprises professionals and organizations such as law enforcement and government agencies, financial services firms, collection agencies, insurance and health care providers, hiring managers, among others. For more information, visit risk.lexisnexis.com.