The latest available data from the federal courts show that during September 2017 the government reported 951 new consumer credit lawsuits filed. This brings the total number of filings during fiscal year 2017 to 10,583. This is the first time in memory that new annual filings of this type surpassed 10,000. According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University, this number is up 8.0% over the previous year when the number of civil filings of this type totaled 9,800. See Table 1.

The previous high point in consumer credit litigation occurred in FY 2011 when suits that year reached 9,826. New filings then declined until they started climbing again in FY 2015. Civil filings of this type are now up 13.0% from levels reported five years ago. The long term trend in consumer credit civil filings for these matters going back to FY 2008 is shown more clearly in Figure 1.

Many of these suits are brought under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. 1681. The Fair Credit Reporting Act was initially passed by Congress in 1970 to help ensure the accuracy, fairness, and privacy of consumer information contained in the files of consumer reporting agencies. Such agencies include financial agencies and credit bureaus such as Equifax that recently reported a major security data breach. It is the Fair Credit Reporting Act that gives consumers specific rights when the person is a victim of identity theft.

Additional consumer credit lawsuits are also brought under the Fair Debt Collection Act, 15 U.S.C. 1692. This act is designed to prohibit debt collectors from using abusive, unfair, or deceptive practices. Occasionally consumer credit lawsuits are brought alleging violations under other statutes such as the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (47 USC 227), the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (47 USC 151), the Communications Act (47 USC 521), and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (12 USC 2601).

These comparisons of civil filings for consumer credit-related suits are based on case-by-case court records which were compiled and analyzed by TRAC.

Where Suits Were Filed

In terms of the sheer number of consumer credit lawsuits, the Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn) easily surpassed every other federal district in the country in each of the last two years. During FY 2017 that district saw a total of 1,218 such suits, even more than the 872 suits filed during FY 2016.

Relative to the population within each district, the District of Nevada surpassed the Eastern District of New York with the most suits on a per capita basis in both years. The Eastern District of New York slipped to second place in the rankings relative to its population size.

Three other districts ranked in the top five relative to population size, although their relative ranking within the top 5 shifted from year-to-year. These remaining districts in the top five were: the Northern District of Georgia (Atlanta), the Southern District of Indiana (Indianapolis), and the Northern District of Illinois (Chicago).

Filings along with per capita rates and rankings for each of the federal districts within the fifty states that had at least one consumer lawsuit during this period are shown in Table 2.

Table 2. Consumer Credit Lawsuits Filed by Federal Judicial District, FY 2016 vs. FY 2017

	FY 2016		FY 2017		Rank (on Rate)
	Number	Rate*	Number	Rate*	FY 2016	FY 2017
Nevada	429	148.4	456	157.7	1	1
N. Y., E	872	104.9	1,218	146.5	2	2
Ga, N	537	80.9	680	102.4	4	3
Ind, S	274	67.9	376	93.2	5	4
Ill, N	767	82.0	842	90.0	3	5
Wisc, E	217	63.7	246	72.3	7	6
N. J.	597	66.6	624	69.7	6	7
Ken, W	113	50.7	151	67.8	10	8
Ill, S	60	47.3	83	65.4	13	9
W Virg, S	56	61.4	57	62.5	8	10
Mo, W	154	48.9	187	59.4	12	11
Cal, S	189	54.3	168	48.3	9	12
Cal, N	307	37.0	400	48.2	17	13
Delaware	20	21.1	44	46.5	36	14
Fla, M	466	41.6	516	46.1	16	15
N. Y., S	192	36.6	228	43.4	18	16
Penn, E	288	49.2	253	43.2	11	17
Ken, E	30	13.7	90	41.0	46	18
N. Y., W	133	47.3	109	38.8	13	19
D. C.	23	34.2	26	38.7	20	20
Mo, E	56	19.1	108	36.8	41	21
Mich, E	201	31.2	231	35.8	24	22
Okla, N	21	19.9	36	34.1	39	23
Fla, S	189	26.1	245	33.8	29	24
Minnesota	259	47.2	184	33.5	15	25
Mich, W	117	33.6	112	32.2	21	26
Ind, N	77	29.8	80	30.9	25	27
Conn	116	32.3	101	28.1	22	28
Virg, E	155	25.0	162	26.2	31	29
Penn, M	92	28.9	83	26.1	27	30
Cal, C	607	31.3	481	24.8	23	31
Okla, W	44	20.9	50	23.7	37	32
Kansas	69	23.7	68	23.4	33	33
Ala, N	73	25.5	64	22.4	30	34
Ark, E	32	19.5	36	21.9	40	35
Maryland	129	21.5	127	21.1	35	36
Colorado	158	29.0	109	20.0	26	37
Wisc, W	52	22.0	46	19.4	34	38
Arizona	250	36.6	129	18.9	18	39
Texas, E	57	14.8	73	18.9	45	39
Texas, N	109	15.2	133	18.6	44	41
Ohio, N	137	23.8	95	16.5	32	42
Ga, M	13	6.5	32	15.9	69	43
Penn, W	105	27.9	59	15.7	28	44
La, M	17	20.5	13	15.7	38	44
Tenn, W	10	6.4	24	15.2	70	46
Texas, W	85	12.2	103	14.8	49	47
Ala, S	14	16.6	11	13.1	43	48
La, E	17	10.2	22	13.1	57	48
Ill, C	30	13.4	29	13.0	47	50
Fla, N	17	9.3	23	12.6	62	51
Cal, E	81	10.2	99	12.4	57	52
W Virg, N	16	17.2	11	11.8	42	53
R. I.	10	9.5	12	11.4	61	54
Tenn, M	27	11.1	27	11.1	52	55
Ark, W	5	3.7	14	10.5	81	56
Wash, W	59	10.5	57	10.2	54	57
N. Y., N	28	8.2	35	10.2	63	57
Montana	7	6.8	10	9.7	66	59
Ala, M	5	4.3	11	9.5	78	60
S Car	51	10.4	46	9.4	55	61
Ohio, S	59	10.1	55	9.4	60	61
Utah	12	4.0	28	9.3	80	63
Virg, W	28	12.8	20	9.1	48	64
Texas, S	60	6.3	82	8.7	71	65
Ga, S	17	10.9	13	8.3	53	66
Mass	71	10.4	54	7.9	55	67
Maine	16	12.0	10	7.5	51	68
Idaho	20	12.1	12	7.3	50	69
Oregon	41	10.2	26	6.5	57	70
Wash, E	12	7.7	10	6.4	64	71
N Car, E	27	6.8	23	5.8	66	72
Tenn, E	12	4.6	14	5.4	75	73
Nebraska	14	7.4	10	5.3	65	74
N Mexico	10	4.8	11	5.3	74	75
Wyoming	3	5.1	3	5.1	73	76
New Hamp	6	4.5	6	4.5	76	77
N Car, W	13	4.1	14	4.4	79	78
Hawaii	5	3.5	6	4.2	84	79
N Dakota	4	5.3	3	4.0	72	80
Iowa, S	2	1.1	7	3.9	89	81
N Car, M	13	4.4	11	3.8	77	82
La, W	7	3.2	6	2.8	85	83
Okla, E	5	6.7	2	2.7	68	84
Miss, S	7	3.7	5	2.7	81	84
Miss, N	4	3.6	2	1.8	83	86
Vermont	0	-	1	1.6	90	87
S Dakota	1	1.2	1	1.2	88	88
Iowa, N	3	2.3	1	0.8	86	89
Alaska	1	1.4	0	-	87	90

* rate per million population

Each month, TRAC offers a free report focused on one area of civil litigation in the U.S. district courts. In addition, subscribers to the TRACFed data service can generate custom reports by district, office, nature of suit or federal jurisdiction via the TRAC Data Interpreter.

Consumer Credit Lawsuits Surpass 10,000 in FY 2017

Where Suits Were Filed