As of July 31, 2009, 5039 credit and debt related lawsuits across the USA haved been filed. In 2008, breaking the 5000 level took until October. The basis of these lawsuits were violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and Fair Debt Collections Practices Act FDCPA. The number includes lawsuits filed consumers acting as their own attorneys (called pro per):
- 4320 FDCPA suits
- 714 FCRA suits
- 5 TCPA suits (Telephone Consumer Protection Act)
The source for these statistics is a website called http://webrecon.com/, a website designed to alert collection agencies of attorneys and consumers who are litigious. As the site says:
Approximately 38% of all FDCPA cases are filed by repeat litigants. Stop just one predictable lawsuit per year, and this service is paid for 3-4 times over.
A lawsuit does not have to be legitimate to cost you a lot of money.
We are always being asked to recommend a good consumer attorney. Attorneys handling consumer lawsuit involving the FDCPA or FCRA are few and far between. The referenced report gives us some more names to add to our (and your!) arsenal. The attorneys with the most lawsuits filed (in order from most to least):
- Sergei Lemberg (NY, CT, MA, FL)
- Donald A. Yarbrough (FL)
- Nicholas J. Bontrager (CA)
- Todd M Friedman (CA)
- George Thomas Martin, III (CA)
- Adam Theodore Hill (NY)
- Daniel A. Edelman (IL)
- Adam Jon Fishbein (NY)
- Brent F. Vullings (PA)
- David Michael Larson (CO)
We here at creditinfocenter.com are big fans of Daniel Edleman, who is an outspoken opponent of payday and title loans. If you live in the Chicago area, you are in luck and may be able to retain him if you have need of a consumer attorney.
If you are interested in other lawyers who have been recommended to us, you can view our lawyer list.
Some people might say this is just an example of how Americans sue at the drop of a hat. Lawsuits are accused of contributing to the high cost of doing business in America, notably health care. In fact, lawsuits do not contribute significantly to health care costs, as most people believe, but that’s a whole other blog post.
Personally, I am applauding this trend – it could mean that the illegal practices of collection agencies are finally being taken to task. On the other hand, with so many consumers defaulting on their credit cards, the collection industry is booming. With increased collection activity, you will have increased violations.
Have you filed a suit against a creditor who has violated your rights? Leave us a comment and tell us about it!
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Capital One violated Texas law and that of the Federal reserve bank. I wrote a check for $18,000 from my home equity line of credit to pay off their loan, and they miscoded $1,800 when they submitted the check (under state laws they could not cash it for less than $4,000) – now both USAA and the Federal reserve verify they submitted the full $18,000 to Capital One yet Capital One still wants to claim I owe them $16,200 (plus interest of course) – meanwhile I’m now in debt to USAA for the $18,000 they claim was paid. Now instead of having closed the account suddenly Capital One has ballooned my debt $16,200!!! Can you recommend an attorney in TX?
Capital One is fully aware they violated the law in cashing the check for less than $4K for two reasons – first, the law is stated on the front of the check that Capital One submitted and stamped, and second, Capital One sells home equity lines of credit in TX as one of their products so they are required by law to know the laws of the state. In short they are saying they still don’t have enough proof that they received the money even though USAA sent them a copy of the cancelled check that they honored in the full amount, so they can fraudulently make interest off both the money they are sitting on from USAA, and continuing to try to charge me interest, in addition to trying to get paid TWICE for the remaining $16,200! Its beyond suing – I want them arrested.
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A definite great read..Tony Brown