Consumers sued an estimated 697 collection agencies and creditors in the second half of September, up from 616 during the first half the month and from 469 in the second half of August, new data show.
They filed 643 consumer statute lawsuits between Sept. 16 and 30, including 804 citing alleged violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, according to WebRecon LLC, a Grand Rapids, Mich.-based company that pulls the data from the U.S. district courts. The total tied to act violations nearly doubled the early September total.
Two attorneys helped fuel a spike in consumers represented in Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Truth-in-Lending Act cases, according to WebRecon.
New Jersey attorney Feng Li previously had filed a small number of consumer lawsuits, but in the second half of September he filed 23 lawsuits representing 195 consumers–36 of them plaintiffs in two lawsuits and 11 of them plaintiffs in three others. Southern California attorney Joshua Shelton filed one Truth-in-Lending Act lawsuit with 109 plaintiffs.
The Sept. 16 to 30 total includes 419 alleged Truth-in-Lending Act violations and 349 alleged Fair Credit Reporting Act violations.
Of the lawsuits filed in the latest period, an estimated 973 involved unique plaintiffs. Of those, an estimated 243 previously sued under consumer statutes. Combined, these plaintiffs have filed an estimated 1,631 lawsuits since 2001.
Year-to-date, consumers have filed 9,550 lawsuits, including 8,910 citing Fair Debt Collection Practices Act violations and 1,335 citing Fair Credit Reporting Act violations.
