An estimated 697 collection agencies and creditors were sued in the second half of September, up from 616 in the first half the month and 469 in the second half of August, according to WebRecon LLC, a Grand Rapids, Mich.-based company that pulls the data from the U.S. District Courts.
There were a total of 643 consumer statute lawsuits filed in the Sept. 16-30 period, including 804 citing alleged violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The FDCPA total nearly doubled the early September total. Two attorneys helped fuel a spike in consumers represented in FDCPA, Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and Truth-in-Lending Act (TILA) cases, according to WebRecon.
New Jersey attorney Feng Li had filed a small number of consumer lawsuits in the past, but in the second half of September filed 23 lawsuits representing 195 consumers – 36 of them plaintiffs in two lawsuits and 11 of them plaintiffs in three lawsuits. Southern California attorney Joshua Shelton filing one Truth-in-Lending Act lawsuit with 109 plaintiffs.
The Sept. 16-30 total includes 419 alleged TILA violations and 349 alleged FCRA violations.
Of the lawsuits filed in the latest period, there were an estimated 973 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 FDCPA violations and 1,335 citing FCRA violations.
