An estimated 525 collection agencies and creditors were sued under consumer statutes, primarily the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Fair Credit Reporting Act, in the first half of April, according to data from U.S. district court dockets.
The tally matched that of the second half of March and was down slightly from 545 in the first half of March.
Consumers filed 459 lawsuits in the April 1-15 period, down markedly compared with the second half of March (545) and the first half of March (538).
The bulk of these cases were alleged Fair Debt Collection Practices Act violations (381 filings in the first half of April). There also were 44 Fair Credit Reporting Act cases and 26 Truth-in-Lending Act cases in the period. The remaining suits cite various state consumer statutes.
Of the total filings in the first half of April, there were approximately 496 unique plaintiffs, including 127 who have sued under consumer statutes before. Together, those plaintiffs have filed approximately 786 lawsuits since 2001.
The research firm WebRecon LLC compiles the monthly data from the court dockets.
