Consumer Debt Cases Are Surging Again—and One Company Is Leading the Charge
Consumer debt lawsuits dropped sharply during the pandemic, but new data shows they are surging again in 2024 and 2025. Across the country, cases where businesses sue consumers over unpaid debts have increased significantly. In some places, filings have climbed well past pre-pandemic levels.
This analysis examines the scope and drivers of this trend, drawing on data from states and metropolitan areas tracked by the Debt Collection Lab. We found:
- Overall filings are rising and reaching – or surpassing – pre-pandemic levels. This holds true for metropolitan areas.
- This increase is being driven disproportionately by a handful of plaintiffs, particularly LVNV Funding, whose case volume has grown 350% since 2019.
- Early 2025 data from Connecticut and Minnesota suggest this surge is continuing into 2025.
As a result, policymakers and courts should pursue reforms that ensure only valid cases are brought to court, that consumers know their rights, and that judges are reviewing cases to ensure accuracy. For more detail about policy reforms, check out Pew’s recent recommendations.
Methodology and data sources
This analysis draws on case-level data from jurisdictions tracked by the Debt Collection Lab, covering 2019-2024. Our dataset includes statewide filings from Minnesota, Indiana, North Dakota, Connecticut, and Missouri as well as major metropolitan areas: Houston, TX (Harris County), Austin, TX (Travis County), Fort Worth, TX (Tarrant County), Phoenix, AZ (Maricopa County), and Philadelphia, PA. We also incorporated data from Wisconsin (courtesy of Wisconsin Court System), Virginia (courtesy of virginiacourtdata.org), as well as aggregate counts of the number of debt collection cases filed in Texas from their Office of Court Administration.
While our sample doesn’t represent all U.S. states and cities, we see similarities across diverse jurisdictions— from rural North Dakota to metropolitan Houston. This indicates trends that are likely occurring nationwide.
We focus on business-to-consumer debt cases. These are lawsuits where businesses sue individual consumers over unpaid debts. This category excludes business-to-business disputes, landlord-tenant cases, and other civil matters that don’t involve consumer debt collection. In addition, we cleaned and harmonized plaintiff names to account for misspellings and variations. You can read more about the Debt Collection Lab’s data cleaning methodology here.
The pandemic dip and 2024 surge
Across nearly every jurisdiction we examined, the pattern is consistent: a sharp decline in consumer debt cases during 2020-2022, followed by a steady increase in 2023 and a pronounced spike in 2024. Many areas have seen filings surge back to or even beyond pre-pandemic levels, though some still remain below their 2019 peaks.
This first chart shows trends in annual case filings as a percentage of a state’s 2019 filings. This allows us to more easily compare states, which vary by population and the amount of debt held by consumers.
Looking at state-level trends relative to 2019 baselines reveals the scope of this rebound. Nearly all states in our sample saw pandemic-era declines starting in 2020 and continuing into 2021 and 2022. By 2023, however, cases began rising again and increased sharply in 2024. In four out of seven states we examined, case filings now meet or exceed their 2019 levels. All of the seven states are well above their 2020 filings. We observed a similar trend in Missouri, but we only have data back to 2020 so we didn’t include it below.
This trend holds when we examine major metropolitan areas in our sample, including counties from our state-level datasets. Austin, TX is the only metro area where filings peaked in 2023, rather than 2024. Still, filings there remain above 2019 levels.
Early 2025 data from two states suggest this trend has continued. Through June, Connecticut had already seen over 36,000 consumer debt cases filed, up from 24% from the same time in 2024 and up 50% from the same time in 2019. Similarly, Minnesota saw nearly 37,000 cases filed between January and May 2025, up 30% from 2024.
LVNV Funding is driving the increase in filings
Perhaps the most striking finding from our analysis is the outsized role that LVNV Funding has had in driving the 2024 increase. Unlike other major plaintiffs who saw their filings drop during the pandemic, LVNV’s case volume never declined. In fact, it actually rose during the pandemic years relative to 2019.
The chart below focuses on statewide data with complete 2019-2024 case-level data, including Minnesota, Connecticut, North Dakota, Indiana, Virginia, and Wisconsin. We focused on plaintiffs who consistently filed the most cases across states: five debt buyers (LVNV Funding, Midland Funding, Portfolio Recovery Associates, Jefferson Capital Systems, and Cavalry SPV) and two credit card companies (Capital One and Discover Bank).
In 2024, LVNV’s filings were 350% higher than they were in 2019. This 3.5x increase far outpaces any other debt collector in our dataset. This increase fundamentally shifted the landscape of debt collection litigation. In 2019, LVNV Funding filed just 4% of consumer debt cases in our state-level jurisdictions, but by 2024 that share had grown to nearly 18%. Had LVNV kept their filings at 2019 levels, there would have been 13-14% fewer consumer debt cases filed in 2024 overall.
Starting at the lowest point of case filings in 2022, over the next two years total consumer debt filings in our sample increased by 177,000 cases. LVNV Funding alone accounted for 32% of that growth.
This flood of LVNV cases isn’t confined to one state or jurisdiction. We see it across the board, albeit to different degrees. In Indiana, LVNV filings increased by 229%, while in Connecticut the filings increased nearly tenfold. The consistency of this pattern across diverse jurisdictions suggests systematic changes in LVNV’s business practices rather than localized factors.
Why do filings continue to increase?
Understanding what’s behind this dramatic increase requires looking at both broader economic trends and changes within the debt collection industry. While we can’t pinpoint exact causes, several factors likely contribute to the patterns we are seeing.
The LVNV Funding puzzle
Part of the reason why LVNV is so active could lie in the company’s corporate relationships and business model. LVNV Funding is a subsidiary of a company that is owned by Sherman Financial LLC, which also previously owned Credit One Bank—a bank that specializes in credit cards and subprime lending to consumers with low credit scores. While the current corporate relationship between Sherman Financial and Credit One is unclear, the CEO of Sherman Financial Group maintains a minority stake in Credit One Bank.
In a forthcoming separate analysis of Virginia’s consumer debt cases, the Virginia Poverty Law Center reports that researchers found evidence that over half of LVNV Funding’s cases were for Credit One Bank debt. Similarly, a hand-sample analysis of court documents in Connecticut uncovered a complex chain of custody of credit card debts between Credit One Bank, LVNV Funding, and companies in the Sherman Financial orbit. This suggests that the surge in LVNV filings may be partly driven by the integrated business model where the same corporate family both originates credit and collects on it when consumers default.
This structure could create different incentives compared to traditional debt buyers who purchase charged-off debt from unrelated creditors. When a company controls both the lending and collection processes, it may be more aggressive in pursuing litigation since it captures the full economic benefit of successful collections.
At the same time, this doesn’t explain why cases have increased so much in the past two years. For that, we need to look at a broader set of factors.
The end of pandemic financial relief
The initial decline in debt cases during 2020-2022 wasn’t simply about court closures or legal delays—though those played a role at the outset. American consumers genuinely improved their financial position during the early pandemic years. Stimulus payments, enhanced unemployment benefits, student loan payment pauses, and eviction moratoriums helped millions pay down existing debts and build savings.
But that financial cushion has largely disappeared. Pandemic relief programs have ended, inflation has eroded purchasing power, and many consumers have drawn down the savings they accumulated during the pandemic’s early months. As household finances have tightened, more consumers are falling behind on payments, creating new opportunities for debt collection litigation.
Industry changes and new technologies
Beyond macroeconomic factors, changes within the debt collection industry may be accelerating the pace of new filings. The industry has embraced new technologies that make it easier and cheaper to file large volumes of cases.
A recent study by the National Center for State Courts examined whether generative AI tools are contributing to increases in court filings. The researchers found that contract case filings increased by 21% in 2022 and 15% in 2023, with contract filings in 2024 exceeding the same months in 2023 consistently from March through December.
The study’s authors found that increases were particularly concentrated in contract cases, which include most debt collection lawsuits, while other civil case types like tort and real estate remained relatively flat. This aligns with our findings that debt collection cases in particular are driving much of the surge in civil litigation.
Looking ahead
The 2024 increase in consumer debt cases represents more than just a return to pre-pandemic norms. With debt collection filings now exceeding 2019 levels in many jurisdictions we studied, and with LVNV Funding alone filing cases at 3.5 times its 2019 rate, consumers may be facing a debt collection environment that is more aggressive than what existed before the pandemic.
Several factors suggest this trend may continue. As pandemic-era financial supports fade further into the past, student loan collections restart, and economic pressures mount, more consumers are likely to fall behind on payments. Meanwhile, technological advances are making it easier and cheaper for debt collectors to pursue litigation at scale.
The concentration of filing activity among a small number of players, particularly LVNV Funding’s dominance, raises important questions about the structure of modern debt collection and its impact on consumers and courts. As this industry continues to evolve, policymakers and consumer advocates will need to grapple with the implications of both the volume and concentration of debt collection litigation.
Solutions like improving the information defendants receive that prove the debt, removing barriers to participation in court like creating an initial appearance docket, removing punitive fees, and simplifying garnishment protections can help ensure that the most vulnerable consumers are protected and support payment plans over judgments. These reforms are likely to help consumers of color, in particular, who are disproportionately impacted by consumer debt lawsuits across the country.
For consumers, the message is clear: debt collection lawsuits are not only back, they’re likely more prevalent than before the pandemic. Understanding your rights and seeking legal assistance when faced with debt collection litigation has never been more important.