Debt Collection Litigation, Except FDCPA cases, Increases in December

Consumer litigation cases and complaints to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in December 2015 contributed to record highs for both last year, but the month-to-month results did not surpass those from November. 
From November to December 2015, TCPA and FCRA cases increased by 5.9 percent and 5.6 percent, respectively; FDCPA case filings declined by 3.5 percent. There were 273 TCPA cases in November, compared to 289 in December, and 377 and 398 FCRA cases, respectively, during the same time period. There were 827 FDCPA cases in December, compared to 857 in November.
Of all the cases in December, there were about 1,275 unique plaintiffs (including multiple plaintiffs in one suit.) Of those plaintiffs, about 496 (39 percent) had sued under consumer statutes before.
 There were 2,686 complaints filed against debt collectors to the CFPB in December, and collection agencies responded to 93 percent (2,503) of those complaints in a timely manner. 
The most reported consumer concern continues to be contact about a debt they do not believe they owe (43 percent), followed by disclosure verification of debt (19 percent) and communications tactics (17 percent.)
The top five sub-issues in debt collection complaints were:

• Debt is not mine (26 percent)
• Frequent or repeated calls (12 percent)
• Not given enough information to verify debt (11 percent)
• Debt was paid (11 percent)
• Right to dispute notice not received (7 percent)

The highest number of identifiable complaints also continues to be in the “other” category for expenses such as phone bills or health club memberships, with 791 complaints (29 percent) in that category last month, according to the report. Credit card debt resulted in 565 complaints (21 percent) and 541 consumers reported they did not know about the type of debt (20 percent) followed by 438 complaints (16 percent) about medical debt.