Consumers have filed 7,923 lawsuits against collection agencies and creditors this year through August 15, a record-setting pace that easily tops the 7,169 lawsuits filed through the year-ago period.
This year, Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) violations are cited in 7,249 lawsuits; Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) violations are cited in 833 lawsuits; and Truth-in-Lending Act (TILA) violations are cited in 705 cases. Many lawsuits list more than one violation.
In the Aug. 1-15 period, an estimated 492 different collection agencies and creditors were sued for consumer statute violations, according to data gathered from U.S. District Courts.
Consumers filed 441 FDCPA lawsuits, 69 FCRA cases, 26 TILA lawsuits and 13 citing Telephone Consumer Protection Act violations. Of the total in the Aug. 1-15 period, there were an estimated 529 unique plaintiffs, including 169 who previously had filed a consumer statute lawsuit. Combined, those plaintiffs have filed an estimated 966 lawsuits since 2001, according to WebRecon LLC, a Grand Rapids, Mich.-based company that pulls the data from the courts.
The top courts for lawsuits in the Aug. 1-15 period are: Colorado District Court, Denver, 33 lawsuits; New York Eastern District Court, Brooklyn, 25 lawsuits; and the California Central District Court, Los Angeles, and Pennsylvania Eastern District Court, Philadelphia - 24 lawsuits each.
