The number of lawsuits filed in May, alleging violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act spiked in May, rising 30% above the numbers filed in April and 22% higher than May of 2016, according to data released today by WebRecon.
There were 1,849 lawsuits filed in May, 967 alleging violations of the FDCPA, 377 FCRA lawsuits, and 505 TCPA suits. Collectively, the 8,156 lawsuits filed through the first five months of May was 1% higher than the same timeframe a year earlier.
The number of complaints filed against debt collection agencies with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau also rose in may, compared with a year earlier, while they were down from April 2017.
The May totals reverse April figures that were a sharp decline from March, according to WebRecon.
Given that the number of FDCPA suits is down on a year-over-year basis and that TCPA suit totals are essentially flat, a 10% increase in FCRA lawsuits could be an indicator of a shift in strategy by plaintiff’s attorneys, who are using the FCRA as a new tool to sue collection agencies.
More than one-third of plaintiffs who filed suit in May had done so before, according to WebRecon’s data, which tracks lawsuit filings from across the country.
