An estimated 541 different collection agencies and creditors are named in 503 consumer statute lawsuits filed nationwide in the first half of June, according to data from U.S. District Court complaint dockets. The numbers are up from the previous two reporting periods.
In the second half of May, 452 agencies and creditors were named in 482 lawsuits. In the first half of May, consumers sued 452 agencies and creditors in 495 lawsuits. The early June total (June 1-15) includes 419 cases citing violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), up slightly from 406 FDCPA cases filed in late May.
Research firm WebRecon LLC, Grand Rapids, Mich., compiles the data from the courts and commonly provides trend analysis. Jack Gordon, chief executive, predicts FDCPA lawsuits will spike this year to nearly 12,000, up from a record 8,287 in 2009. However, he also pointed out that the record total would represent a cooling off in the actual growth rate (
The June 1-15 total also includes 47 Fair Credit Reporting Act lawsuits, compared with 42 in late May. Some other consumer statute lawsuits listed in the monthly data include the Truth-in-Lending Act (17 lawsuits), the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (6 lawsuits), the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (5) and various state consumer statutes.
Of the 503 consumer statute lawsuits filed in late May, there are an estimated 577 unique plaintiffs, including 182 who previously sued citing consumer statute violations. Combined, those plaintiffs have filed an estimated 1,042 lawsuits since 2001.
