Credit Card Collection Lawsuits by State: Data and Limits

Start with court administrative data

A court annual report may group all contract cases, all small claims or all debt claims. None can automatically be labeled credit-card lawsuits. Check the reporting year, geographic coverage and whether the unit is filings, dispositions or unique defendants.

Use historical research as historical research

Pew’s 2020 research is a useful starting point for understanding the growth of debt claims and inconsistent reporting. It should not be relabeled as current state totals or as a forecast for a household.

Sources: Pew: state court research

A reproducible state comparison would require

• A common reporting period and case-type definition.
• Identification of credit-card cases rather than all debt cases.
• Deduplication rules for transfers and repeated filings.
• An appropriate denominator, such as exposed accounts or population, with clear limits.
• Separate filings, judgments, defaults and collections.

Use the state guide for the decision in front of you

The state library points to official legal, court and consumer resources. A lawsuit frequency figure would not change a response deadline. Verify your summons and court’s procedure directly.

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