FDCPA Lawsuits Spike in Second Half of May on One Large Case

There was a significant spike in FDCPA lawsuits from May 16 to May 31, even taking into account the fact that one FDCPA suit filed by attorney Dale Pittman named 100 different plaintiffs in a suit that also invokes the TCPA. Pittman’s suit explains the apparent disparity of the number of suits filed being lower than the number of FDCPA claims.

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

FDCPA and Other Consumer Lawsuit Statistics, May 16-31, 2011

There were about 634 lawsuits filed under consumer statutes in the second half of May 2011. Here is an approximate breakdown:

• 660 FDCPA
• 101 TCPA
• 48 FCRA
• 33 TILA

Summary

• Of those cases, there were about 756 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
• Of those plaintiffs, about 222 had sued under consumer statutes before.
• Combined, those plaintiffs have filed about 1,283 lawsuits since 2001
• Actions were filed in 113 different US District Court branches.
• About 584 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

• 51 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
• 40 Lawsuits: Minnesota District Court – Dmn
• 38 Lawsuits: New Jersey District Court – Newark
• 31 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
• 28 Lawsuits: Florida Southern District Court – Fort Lauderdale
• 26 Lawsuits: Colorado District Court – Denver
• 24 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles
• 21 Lawsuits: Florida Southern District Court – Miami
• 21 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
• 19 Lawsuits: California Southern District Court – San Diego

The most active consumer attorneys were:

• Representing 101 Consumers: Dale Wood Pittman
• Representing 30 Consumers: Jack Dennis Card, Jr.
• Representing 22 Consumers: Craig Thor Kimmel
• Representing 22 Consumers: Mark L Vavreck
• Representing 21 Consumers: Yaakov Saks
• Representing 20 Consumers: Donald A. Yarbrough
• Representing 20 Consumers: Andrew Ira Glenn
• Representing 17 Consumers: Amy Lynn Bennecoff
• Representing 15 Consumers: David Michael Larson
• Representing 12 Consumers: Craig J. Ehrlich

Statistics Year to Date

5,928 total lawsuits for 2011, including:

• 4,970 FDCPA
• 516 FCRA
• 218 TILA
• 543 TCPA

Number of Unique Plaintiffs: 6,080 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

• Representing 150 Consumers: David Michael Larson
• Representing 145 Consumers: Craig Thor Kimmel
• Representing 116 Consumers: Jack Dennis Card, Jr.
• Representing 110 Consumers: Dale Wood Pittman
• Representing 84 Consumers: Sergei Lemberg

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.