In what might be a first, all of the data points tracked by WebRecon were lower in April than they were in March, including the number of complaints filed with the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, the number of complaints filed with the Better Business Bureau, and the number of lawsuits alleging violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, according to data released yesterday by the company.
And the decreases were significant, in many of those categories.
For FDCPA lawsuits and TCPA lawsuits, the month-over-month decline was the continuation of a downward trend that has existed for the first four months of 2018. On a year-over-year basis, the number of FDCPA lawsuits that have been filed is nearly 7% lower than at the same point a year ago, and the number of TCPA lawsuits is 17% lower. Only the number of FCRA lawsuits and the number of CFPB complaints is higher on a year-over-year basis.
While the number of lawsuits being filed against collection agencies is on the decline — for now — there is one component of WebRecon’s stats that is rising. Four lawyers from the same firm — Atlas Consumer Law — were the four most active plaintiff’s attorneys in April, according to WebRecon. Ahmad Tayseer Sulaiman, Mohammed Omar Badwan, Nathan Charles Volheim, and Taxiarchis Hatzidimitriadis combined to represent 154 plaintiffs in April.
