FDCPA and Other Consumer Rights Lawsuit Statistics, April 7, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Grand Rapids, MI (April 7, 2010) – The following statistics are provided to the ARM industry courtesy of WebRecon LLC.

FDCPA and Other Consumer Rights Lawsuit Statistics, April 7, 2010

There were about 545 lawsuits filed under consumer statutes in the second half of March. Here is an approximate breakdown:
 476 Fair Debt Collection Practices Act
 42 Fair Credit Reporting Act
 17 Truth In Lending Act
 2 Equal Credit Opportunity Act
 2 Electronic Fund Transfers Act
 1 Higher Education Opportunity Act
 1 Home Ownership And Equity Protection Act
 2 Internal Revenue Code
 1 Personal Injury
 2 State of California Consumer Statutes
 1 State of Florida Consumer Statutes
 1 State of Maryland Consumer Statutes
 1 State of New York Consumer Statutes
 1 State of Ohio Consumer Statutes
 1 State of Vermont Consumer Statutes
 2 State of West Virginia Consumer Statutes
 3 Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act

Summary:
 Of those cases, there were about 588 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit).
 Of those plaintiffs, about 172 had sued under consumer statutes before.
 Combined, those 172 plaintiffs have filed about 1045 lawsuits since 2001
 Actions were filed in 111 different US District Court branches.
 About 525 different collection firms and creditors were sued.

The top courts where lawsuits were filed:
 36 Lawsuits: Illinois Northern District Court – Chicago
 30 Lawsuits: Colorado District Court – Denver
 28 Lawsuits: Minnesota District Court – DMN
 25 Lawsuits: Pennsylvania Eastern District Court – Philadelphia
 25 Lawsuits: Georgia Northern District Court – Atlanta
 24 Lawsuits: California Central District Court – Western Division – Los Angeles
 20 Lawsuits: New York Western District Court – Buffalo
 15 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Brooklyn
 13 Lawsuits: New York Eastern District Court – Central Islip
 12 Lawsuits: California Northern District Court – San Francisco

The most active consumer attorneys were:
 Representing 23 Consumers: Sergei Lemberg
 Representing 21 Consumers: Brent F. Vullings
 Representing 20 Consumers: David Michael Larson
 Representing 17 Consumers: Todd Michael Friedman
 Representing 17 Consumers: James D. Pacitti
 Representing 17 Consumers: James Marvin Feagle
 Representing 16 Consumers: Craig Thor Kimmel
 Representing 15 Consumers: Adam Jon Fishbein
 Representing 15 Consumers: Nicholas J. Bontrager
 Representing 13 Consumers: Jon N. Robbins

Statistics Year to Date:
2816 total lawsuits for 2010, including:
 2403 FDCPA
 255 FCRA
 8 TCPA
 101 TILA (Truth in Lending Act)

Number of unique Plaintiffs: 2869 (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit)

The most active consumer attorneys of the year:
 Representing 92 Consumers: Ryan Scott Lee
 Representing 90 Consumers: Matthew William Kiverts
 Representing 90 Consumers: Brent F. Vullings
 Representing 83 Consumers: Sergei Lemberg
 Representing 80 Consumers: David Michael Larson

About WebRecon LLC: 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.