Consumer Debt Filings Kept Climbing in 2025

By David McClendon

Debt Collection • Research • July 15, 2026

Last August we documented a sharp rebound in consumer debt lawsuits through 2024, and we found that a single debt buyer, LVNV Funding, accounted for an outsized share of the surge in filings. That analysis was followed by Pew’s writeup of the trend and its case for reform, and the following week the New York Times reported on our findings. 

In this post, we’ve updated data through December 2025 and find that the trend continues. Filings rose again in 2025 in nearly every state we track, and LVNV continues to be the primary driver.

A note on the data

This update uses a slightly different mix of jurisdictions than the original post. In this analysis, our sample covers data from the Debt Collection Lab in Minnesota, Virginia, North Dakota, and Missouri, along with state summary data on consumer debt cases reported by Massachusetts (new), Utah (new), Alabama (new), and Texas. Connecticut, Indiana, and Wisconsin, which appeared in the earlier analysis, are no longer available to us for 2025. 

We also track eight metropolitan areas: Austin (Travis County, TX), Boston (Suffolk County, MA; new), Minneapolis-St. Paul (Hennepin and Ramsey Counties, MN), Philadelphia, Phoenix (Maricopa County, AZ; new), Richmond, VA, Salt Lake City (Salt Lake County, UT; new), Birmingham, AL (Jefferson County, AL; new), and City of St. Louis, MO (new). A few of these metros, including Phoenix and Philadelphia, sit outside our seven states.

As before, we index each state and city to its 2019 filings so we can compare places of very different sizes on the same scale. For the full methodology, see our original post.

Consumer debt filings rose again across most states

Between 2024 and 2025, filings climbed in seven of the eight states, and in all states filings now sit roughly at or above 2019 levels. Missouri and Texas had the biggest increase, with filings at 188% and 177% of their 2019 totals. Massachusetts and Utah also moved well past their pre-pandemic baselines. North Dakota peaked in 2024, but is still about 20% above its 2019 level. Only Virginia has filings that remain below its 2019 mark at 98% of that year’s total.

The same pattern holds across major metros

The metro areas in our sample tell a similar story as the states. By 2025, filings were back above their 2019 levels in seven of the nine metros we track. St. Louis has the most dramatic increase, with filings nearly double its 2019 count, followed by Boston at 168% of its 2019 level. Philadelphia, Austin, Salt Lake City, and Phoenix all sit between 115% and 125%. Minneapolis-St. Paul has climbed back to just under 2019 levels, at 96%. Richmond is the clear exception. After falling sharply during the pandemic, its filings have recovered only partway and remain at 62% of 2019, mirroring Virginia’s lag at the state level.

LVNV is still out front

For Virginia, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Missouri, LVNV Funding remains the single largest source of the rise in filings. Within these states, where we have complete case-level data back to 2019, LVNV filed nearly five times as many cases in 2025 as it did in 2019. Its share of all consumer debt cases in our sample rose from 20% in 2024 to roughly 23% in 2025, up from under 6% in 2019. No other plaintiff in our sample approaches that level.

We also have aggregate data from Massachusetts in 2019 and 2025 about the top filers of consumer debt cases, and we see a similar story. LVNV filed 2.5x the number of consumer debt cases in 2025 as it did in 2019 (31,545 vs. 12,807) in Massachusetts. It is now the largest filer of consumer debt lawsuits in the state, filing 22% of all cases (up from 13% in 2019).

Because this update rests on a different mix of states than our original post, these shares are not directly comparable to the figures we reported then. They describe LVNV’s footprint within this year’s sample.

The other large debt buyers show a mixed picture. By 2025, Jefferson Capital Systems, Capital One, and Portfolio Recovery Associates were all filing above their 2019 volumes in the states in our sample. Midland Funding and Discover Bank sat just below where they were in 2019. Cavalry SPV was the clear exception, filing at about two-thirds of its 2019 level.

The Capital One and Discover figures may be linked. Capital One completed its acquisition of Discover in May 2025. Part of Capital One’s increase and Discover’s decline could reflects accounts, and the cases tied to them, moving under the new owner’s name rather than a real shift in either company’s collection activity.

Why filings keep climbing

Two forces are behind the climb. The first is financial: households have far less cushion than they did a few years ago. The decline in filings during 2020-2022 was never just about closed courtrooms. During the pandemic, many families were in better financial shape than they had been in years. Stimulus payments, expanded unemployment benefits, paused student loans, and eviction moratoriums let millions pay down balances and set a little aside.

That breathing room is gone. The cost of essentials like groceries and rent remains far above 2019 levels, and households have spent down the savings they built during the pandemic. Credit card balances are near record highs, and the share of household debt that is past due has climbed back well above its pandemic lows. Millions of borrowers have also had to resume federal student loan payments after a multi-year pause. When a household is already stretched this thin, it only takes a few months for an unpaid bill to turn into a court summons.

The second force is on the supply side. As more households fall behind, debt buyers have more accounts to pursue, and filing has gotten cheaper and faster. A study from the National Center for State Courts found that contract filings, the category that covers most debt collection cases, rose 21% in 2022 and 15% in 2023 while other civil case types stayed relatively flat. One open question is how much cheap, fast AI tools are adding to that by making it easier to generate and file complaints at scale. We can’t answer that with filing counts alone, and it likely deserves its own analysis.

What it means

The pattern from last year has not reversed. In most of the states we track, consumer debt litigation is not only back to pre-pandemic levels, it is running past them, and a single debt buyer still accounts for a growing share of the cases. The reforms that Pew identified last year matter even more now. Courts should make sure only valid cases move forward, that the people being sued understand their rights, and that judges review filings for accuracy before entering judgment.

For the families on the other side of these filings, the message is the same as it was a year ago. Debt collection lawsuits are even more common than before the pandemic. Knowing your rights and getting help when you are sued matters as much as ever.

For the earlier analysis and the full methodology, see our original post.