Fair Debt Collection Practices Act lawsuits increased 16 percent from June 2014 to June 2015, according to a report issued by WebRecon.  The report also noted that FDCPA lawsuits increased from 885 to 1,129 from May to June this year.  According to the report, Fair Credit Reporting Act lawsuits also increased 22.7 percent from June 2014 to June 2015 – an unusually large increase that reveals the increasing trend of FCRA litigation.  The report further noted that lawsuits under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act continued to decline slightly over the past year (continuing a trend for TCPA in 2015), but by a much smaller margin than last month.

Complaints to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau filed against debt collectors increased only slightly from June 2014 to 2015 – from 20,582 to 20,751 (0.8%), according to the report.  However, month-to-month complaint filings increased 5.4 percent from 3,186 to 3,359.  Of the 3,359 complaints:

  • 902 were closed with explanation (27%);
  • 213 were closed with non-monetary relief (6%);
  • 136 were still in progress (4%);
  • 70 were closed (2%);
  • 39 had an untimely response (1%); and
  • 10 were closed with monetary relief (.29%).

These figures show the increasing trend of increasing consumer litigation, as well as the need for careful compliance policies in these hotly-litigated spaces.