FDCPA and Other Consumer Rights Lawsuit Statistics for First Half of March 2010

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

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

There were about 538 lawsuits filed under consumer statutes in the first half of March. Here is an
approximate breakdown:

462 Fair Debt Collection Practices Act
50 Fair Credit Reporting Act
1 Telephone Consumer Protection Act
15 Truth In Lending Act
1 Credit Repair Organizations Act
3 Equal Credit Opportunity Act
1 Electronic Fund Transfers Act
1 Fair Housing Act
1 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
2 Home Ownership And Equity Protection Act
1 State of Arkansas Consumer Statutes
1 State of Florida Consumer Statutes
1 State of Illinois Consumer Statutes
1 State of Maryland Consumer Statutes
1 State of West Virginia Consumer Statutes
4 Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act

Summary:

Of those cases, there were about 563 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
Of those plaintiffs, about 128 had sued under consumer statutes before.
Combined, those 128 plaintiffs have filed about 970 lawsuits since 2001
Actions were filed in 112 different US District Court branches.
About 545 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:

39 Lawsuits: Minnesota District Court – DMN
31 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
29 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles
26 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
20 Lawsuits: Colorado District Court – Denver
19 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
16 Lawsuits: Connecticut District Court – New Haven
15 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Middle District Court – Scranton
14 Lawsuits: New York Western District Court – Buffalo
13 Lawsuits: California Southern District Court – San Diego

The most active consumer attorneys were:

Representing 37 Consumers: Jody B. Burton
Representing 22 Consumers: Sergei Lemberg
Representing 19 Consumers: Brent F. Vullings
Representing 15 Consumers: Nicholas J. Bontrager
Representing 14 Consumers: Mark L. Vavreck
Representing 14 Consumers: David Michael Larson
Representing 13 Consumers: Matthew William Kiverts
Representing 13 Consumers: Ryan Scott Lee
Representing 12 Consumers: David J. Philipps
Representing 12 Consumers: Peter Cozmyk

Statistics Year to Date

2275 total lawsuits for 2010, including:

1928 FDCPA
213 FCRA
8 TCPA
84 TILA (Truth in Lending Act)

Number of unique Plaintiffs: 2317 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:

Representing 88 Consumers: Matthew William Kiverts
Representing 79 Consumers: Ryan Scott Lee
Representing 68 Consumers: Brent F. Vullings
Representing 60 Consumers: Sergei Lemberg
Representing 60 Consumers: David Michael Larson

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.