Litigation citing violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, Telephone Consumer Protection Act and Fair Credit Reporting Act dropped in November compared to October but remain significantly higher year-to-date.
FDCPA lawsuits dropped 12.5% in November, but jumped 14% year-to-date to 9,180. TCPA lawsuits are down 42% in November, but increased 11.4% year-to-date to 2,324. FCRA lawsuits fell 8.8% in November, but soared 42.9% year-to-date to 2,224.
For November, approximately 36% of all consumer litigation plaintiffs had sued at least once before under consumer litigation statutes. An estimated 815 different companies were sued and 696 different debt collectors were complained about to the CFPB.
Class action lawsuits were mixed, with 18.7% FDCPA cases, 8.2% TCPA cases and 16.5% for FCRA cases. The Illinois Northern District Court in Chicago saw the most litigation with 70 consumers represented in litigation. California had the most CFPB complaints against debt collectors, totaling 336. Attorney Craig Sanders represented the most consumers in November with 45. Sanders also has represented the most in 2015, totaling 297.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau complaints are up 1.7% year-to-date through November and not all of the November numbers have been calculated. Of the 2,399 complaints tallied, 1,014 cited continued attempts to collect debt that’s not owed. A total of 441 fell into the “disclosure verification of debt” category and 402 listed “communication tactics”.
