Public verdicts and settlements
Everything on this page is a public record of someone else's case. None of it is a result of this firm, and none of it predicts what any other case will bring. Each entry names the amount, what kind of payment it was, who paid or was ordered to pay, the year and the source, from a $225,000 punitive award in Florida to a $59 million class settlement in New York.
People ask what cases like theirs have brought. The honest answer is a list of public records with a warning attached. These are other people's cases. They were not handled by this firm. They show how wide the range is, and the large ones are here because large amounts make the news and small ones do not.
Each entry carries its label. A verdict is a jury's award, which is not money paid until post-trial motions and appeals are over. A class settlement is divided among many people. A civil penalty is paid to a government agency, and restitution or redress is money an agency order sends back to consumers.
Read this before the numbers
Every figure below is a public record of someone else's case. None is a result of this firm, and none is a prediction. For an individual case, the FDCPA allows actual damages plus statutory damages of up to $1,000 (15 U.S.C. § 1692k(a)); the FCRA allows actual damages or statutory damages of $100 to $1,000 for a willful violation, plus punitive damages (§ 1681n(a)); the FCCPA allows actual damages, statutory damages up to $1,000 and punitive damages (Fla. Stat. § 559.77(2)); and the TCPA allows $500 per violation, up to three times that if willful or knowing (47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(3)). What a case is worth depends on the facts, the harm and the defenses, and nothing on this site estimates it.
New York
New York consumers sue under the FDCPA and under GBL § 349, which lets the court award fees to a prevailing plaintiff. The New York page has the rules.
Sykes v. Mel S. Harris & Associates
A debt buyer (Leucadia entities), its law firm and its process server paid to settle claims that they obtained default judgments against New Yorkers who were never served, using false affidavits. The settlement provided for vacating about 192,000 default judgments. Read the story.
Source: ABA Journal. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
CFPB and New York AG v. JPL Recovery Solutions
A group of collection companies near Buffalo, their owners and managers were ordered to pay $2 million to the CFPB and $2 million to the New York Attorney General and were banned from debt collection. The complaint alleged false threats of arrest and calls to family, employers and social media contacts. Read the story.
Source: CFPB. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
Florida
The FCCPA reaches creditors as well as collectors and allows punitive damages. The Florida page has the rules.
Medley v. DISH Network
DISH kept billing and calling a customer after her lawyer twice notified it that she was represented. The jury also awarded $1,000 in statutory damages and $8,750 in actual damages under Fla. Stat. § 559.72(18). The court denied DISH's motion to reduce the award. Read the story.
Source: U.S. District Court, M.D. Fla.. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
Credit reports (FCRA)
The FCRA allows punitive damages for willful violations, and requires a company found liable to pay the consumer's reasonable attorney's fees and costs. See credit reports.
Miller v. Equifax Information Services
Equifax merged a woman's file with a stranger's and did not fix it through two years of disputes. The jury awarded $180,000 compensatory and $18.4 million punitive; the judge cut the punitive award to $1.62 million and ordered Equifax to pay $302,002.50 in attorney's fees. Read the story.
Source: U.S. District Court, D. Or.. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez
A credit report add-on flagged 8,185 people as possible matches to a federal terrorist list using first and last names only. The Supreme Court held that only the 1,853 whose reports went to businesses had standing on the accuracy claim. Read the story.
Source: Supreme Court of the United States. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
Agency orders against debt buyers
These are government actions. The penalty goes to the government or a victims fund; the restitution or redress goes back to consumers the order covers. None decides any individual's own claim. Read the story.
Encore Capital Group (Midland Funding, Midland Credit Management, Asset Acceptance)
The CFPB found robo-signed court affidavits, suits on time-barred debts and collection without documentation, and required the company to stop collecting more than $125 million in debts.
Source: CFPB. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
Portfolio Recovery Associates
The same pattern of findings, and an order to stop collecting $3.4 million in debts.
Source: CFPB. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
Encore Capital Group, second action
For violating the 2015 order, including suing without required documents and suing on time-barred debt without required disclosures.
Source: CFPB. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
Portfolio Recovery Associates, second action
For violating the 2015 order and for FCRA dispute failures, including resolving disputes late on tens of thousands of occasions.
Source: CFPB. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
Unwanted calls (TCPA)
The TCPA sets damages per call or per violation and has no fee-shifting clause. See robocalls and texts.
Krakauer v. DISH Network
A class of people on the national Do-Not-Call registry, or on the companies' own do-not-call lists, received telemarketing calls from DISH's sales vendor. The jury found DISH liable for its vendor's calls and set damages at $400 per call; the district court tripled the award, and the Fourth Circuit affirmed.
Source: U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
The TCPA's Do-Not-Call damages provision is 47 U.S.C. § 227(c)(5): up to $500 per violation, up to three times that if willful or knowing.
What the law lets you recover
Common questions
Are these your firm's results?
No. Every entry on this page is a public record of someone else's case, taken from a court opinion or docket, an agency announcement or a news report, and linked to its source. This site publishes no figure about the firm's own results.
Why are the individual amounts so different from the statutory damages caps?
Because statutory damages are only one piece. The FDCPA and the FCCPA cap statutory damages at $1,000 in an individual case, but they also allow actual damages, and the FCRA and the FCCPA allow punitive damages. The large figures here are punitive awards, class totals or government penalties. Most individual cases involve far smaller sums, and none of these figures says what any other case is worth.
What is the difference between a verdict, a settlement and a civil penalty?
A verdict is a jury's number, which can be reduced by the judge or on appeal before anything is paid. A settlement is an agreed payment, usually without an admission. A civil penalty is money a government agency obtains from a company, usually paid to the government or a victims fund rather than to any one consumer.
Tell us what they did.
One conversation with an attorney, in your language. We tell you which laws the collector or the credit bureau broke, which deadline runs first, and what to save this week. If it is not a case we can take, we say so and tell you where to go.
(718) 484-7510The FDCPA and the FCRA require a company found liable to pay the consumer’s reasonable attorney’s fees and costs. Our fee arrangement is confirmed in a written retainer before we begin. English, Russian and Spanish in-house; an interpreter for any other language.