A total of 732 lawsuits citing Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) violations were filed in September, a 50% jump from 489 FDCPA cases filed in September 2008, according to WebRecon LLC, a Grand Rapids, Mich.-based company that publishes “The FDCPA Litigant Alert.” Another 69 cases cited Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) violations.
In the last two weeks of September, there were an estimated 450 lawsuits filed under various consumer statutes, including 383 FDCPA cases, 30 FCRA cases and 18 involving Truth-in-Lending Act issues. In those two weeks alone, 460 different collection agencies and creditors were sued.
In the first nine months of 2009, the numbers reveal that 8.7% of consumer attorneys represented 65.4% of plaintiffs, according to an analysis of FDCPA-related lawsuits. The raw numbers show that of 1,890 individual consumer attorneys that WebRecon tracks, 165 of them filed 6,578 of the total 10,057 complaints, (CCR Newsline, Oct. 8).
The most active consumer attorneys in 2009 are: Ryan Scott Lee, with Krohn and Moss Ltd. in Los Angeles, representing 351 individuals; Nicholas J. Bontrager, also with Krohn and Moss Ltd., representing 234 individuals; Kenneth R. Hiller, with the Law Offices of Kenneth Hiller in Amherst, N.Y., representing 187 individuals; and Todd Michael Friedman, with the Law Offices of Todd M. Friedman P.C. in Beverly Hills, Calif., representing 174 individuals.