Short-term gain, long-term loss. That’s the takeaway from the most recent numbers released by WebRecon.
The good news is that the number of lawsuits filed in February alleging violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act were lower than the number filed in January. But the number filed compared with the same month last year is significantly higher. The incongruency of the data led Jack Gordon, the CEO of WebRecon to predict that the litigation numbers will remain “unpredictable” for the foreseeable future.
On the downside, WebRecon noted, was an “explosion” in the number of complaints filed with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The 3,738 complaints filed in February were 20% higher than the number filed last February. Over the first two months of 2017, the number of complaints is up 22%.
Nearly 1,300 individuals filed lawsuits against collection agencies in February, and 34% of them were doing it for more than the first time.
