FDCPA and Other Consumer Rights Lawsuit Statistics for May 1-15

Grand Rapids, Mich. – The following statistics are provided to the ARM industry courtesy of WebRecon LLC.

FDCPA and Other Consumer Rights Lawsuit Statistics, May 1-15, 2010

There were about 495 lawsuits filed under consumer statutes in the first half of May. Here is an approximate breakdown:

• 434 Fair Debt Collection Practices Act
• 37 Fair Credit Reporting Act
• 3 Telephone Consumer Protection Act
• 14 Truth In Lending Act
• 1 Bankruptcy Related
• 4 Electronic Fund Transfers Act
• 1 Home Ownership And Equity Protection Act
• 2 Personal Injury
• 4 State of California Consumer Statutes
• 1 District Of Columbia Consumer Statutes
• 1 State of Illinois Consumer Statutes
• 1 State of West Virginia Consumer Statutes
• 3 Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act
• 1 Right to Financial Privacy Act

Summary:

• Of those cases, there were about 510 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
• Of those plaintiffs, about 195 had sued under consumer statutes before.
• Combined, those 195 plaintiffs have filed about 1117 lawsuits since 2001
• Actions were filed in 109 different US District Court branches.
• About 425 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

• 27 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
• 23 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
• 22 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles
• 21 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
• 19 Lawsuits: Florida Southern District Court – Fort Lauderdale
• 19 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
• 15 Lawsuits: Colorado District Court – Denver
• 14 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Central Islip
• 13 Lawsuits: Minnesota District Court – DMN
• 12 Lawsuits: New Jersey District Court – Newark

The most active consumer attorneys were:

• Representing 29 Consumers: Donald A. Yarbrough
• Representing 19 Consumers: Sergei Lemberg
• Representing 17 Consumers: Adam Jon Fishbein
• Representing 15 Consumers: Jennifer M. Kurtz
• Representing 13 Consumers: James Marvin Feagle
• Representing 13 Consumers: David J. Philipps
• Representing 13 Consumers: Brent F. Vullings
• Representing 12 Consumers: Jody B. Burton
• Representing 12 Consumers: David Michael Larson
• Representing 11 Consumers: Todd Michael Friedman

Statistics Year to Date

4340 total lawsuits for 2010, including:

• 3701 FDCPA
• 377 FCRA
• 12 TCPA
• 153 TILA (Truth in Lending Act)

Number of unique Plaintiffs: 4306 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

• Representing 134 Consumers: Sergei Lemberg
• Representing 125 Consumers: Brent F. Vullings
• Representing 114 Consumers: Ryan Scott Lee
• Representing 109 Consumers: David Michael Larson
• Representing 107 Consumers: Todd Michael Friedman

About WebRecon LLC
Creditors and collection firms use WebRecon’s (www.webrecon.com) 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.