More consumers are taking credit bureaus, lenders, debt collectors and telemarketers to court than at any time in the past decade. On October 20, 2026, LexisNexis released the Lex Machina 2026 Consumer Protection Litigation Report. It found that 20,353 consumer-protection cases were filed in federal court in 2025, up 31% from the year before and the highest annual total in the ten years the report studied.

The pace hasn’t slowed. According to the report, more than 12,000 new federal consumer cases were filed in just the first half of 2026, putting this year on track to set another record.

What the report found

• Credit-reporting cases led the way. Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) filings rose 44% to 7,750 cases in 2025, an increase of 2,386 over 2024. FCRA cases made up about 38% of all federal consumer-protection filings, double their 19% share in 2016. Roughly 4,986 more FCRA cases were filed in the first half of 2026.
• Robocall and text cases jumped the fastest. Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) filings rose 63%, from 1,682 cases in 2024 to 2,748 in 2025. Another 1,658 were filed in the first half of 2026.
• Bigger awards in fewer cases. Recorded damage awards rose 35% to about $7.5 billion, not counting fees, costs and interest, even though the number of cases with awards fell slightly, from 452 to 437. The report notes that a single $2.5 billion consent judgment accounted for about a third of that total.
• Data breach suits are climbing too. LexisNexis said data breach lawsuits rose 21% in 2025.

The report is an industry analysis of federal court dockets. It counts cases filed, not cases won, and the press release doesn’t explain why filings rose.

Why it matters

Behind every one of those filings is a person who was harmed. Someone was denied a mortgage because of a debt they had already paid. Someone else’s credit report still showed a bankruptcy-discharged account as past due, or a stranger’s collection account was mixed into their file. Another person got dozens of prerecorded calls or texts they never agreed to.

Federal consumer laws were written so that ordinary people could enforce them. Most of them let you recover statutory damages, which you don’t have to prove dollar for dollar, plus your attorney’s fees from the company that broke the law. That fee-shifting is why many consumer cases cost the consumer nothing out of pocket, and it’s a big part of why these lawsuits are possible at all.

The laws behind the numbers

• Fair Credit Reporting Act. When you dispute an error, a credit bureau must conduct a reasonable reinvestigation, generally within 30 days (15 U.S.C. § 1681i). Lenders and collectors that report to the bureaus must investigate disputes forwarded to them (§ 1681s-2(b)). If a company willfully violates the FCRA, you can recover actual damages or statutory damages of $100 to $1,000, plus punitive damages and attorney’s fees (§ 1681n). Negligent violations allow actual damages and fees (§ 1681o). You generally must sue within 2 years of discovering the violation and no more than 5 years after it occurred (§ 1681p).
• Telephone Consumer Protection Act. For autodialed or prerecorded calls made without the required consent, you can recover your actual loss or $500 per violation, whichever is greater, and up to three times that if the violation was willful or knowing (47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(3)). If you’re on the National Do Not Call Registry and received more than one telemarketing call from the same company within 12 months, you may have a separate claim of up to $500 per violation (§ 227(c)(5)).
• Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Debt collectors who break the FDCPA can owe your actual damages, up to $1,000 in additional statutory damages and your attorney’s fees (15 U.S.C. § 1692k). The deadline is short: generally one year from the violation.

What’s changing in 2026

The rules on robocalls and texts are shifting. In Pennsylvania, an amended telemarketing law took effect on October 18, 2026, expanding coverage to text messages and ringless voicemails. We explained that law here. At the federal level, the FCC adopted new rules on September 30 about how consumers revoke consent to robocalls and robotexts. Those rules take effect 30 days after they are published in the Federal Register, which had not happened as of today.

On the credit side, large class settlements continue to open claim windows for consumers. Two are still open: the Equifax hard-inquiry settlement and the TransUnion bankruptcy-reporting settlement, both with deadlines this fall.

What this means for you: how to tell if you may have a claim

• Pull your credit reports. You can get free reports from Equifax, Experian and TransUnion at AnnualCreditReport.com. Look for accounts you don’t recognize, debts shown as unpaid after you paid or settled them, accounts included in a bankruptcy that still show a balance, wrong dates, duplicate collection accounts and someone else’s information.
• Dispute in writing and keep copies. Send a dispute to each bureau reporting the error, explain what’s wrong and include proof. Save the bureau’s response. A bureau or lender that “verifies” an error you’ve documented, without really looking into it, is a common basis for an FCRA claim.
• Write down the damage. Keep any credit denial letters, higher-rate offers, or notes about time lost and stress. Those records matter if you bring a claim.
• Log unwanted calls and texts. Screenshot texts and keep call logs showing dates, times and numbers. Note whether the call used a recorded voice and whether you ever asked them to stop. Add your number to the National Do Not Call Registry at DoNotCall.gov if you haven’t already.
• Watch the clock. FDCPA claims generally must be filed within one year and FCRA claims within two years of discovery. Don’t wait months to get advice.
• File a complaint too. You can report credit-reporting and debt-collection problems to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at consumerfinance.gov/complaint. A complaint doesn’t replace a lawsuit, but it creates a record.

Ginsburg Law Group represents consumers in credit-reporting, robocall and debt-collection cases, and in most of these cases the law makes the company that broke it pay the attorney’s fees. If a credit report error has cost you, or a company won’t stop calling or texting, contact us for a free case review.

This article is for general informational purposes only and is not legal advice. Statistics come from the Lex Machina report as summarized in the LexisNexis press release. Whether you have a claim depends on your specific facts and the law in your state. Consult a licensed attorney about your situation.

Authoritative Sources

• LexisNexis: Lex Machina 2026 Consumer Protection Litigation Report, Federal Filings Jump 31% to a Ten-Year Peak (Oct. 20, 2026)
• 15 U.S.C. § 1681i, FCRA reinvestigation of disputes (Cornell LII)
• 15 U.S.C. § 1681s-2, duties of furnishers (Cornell LII)
• 15 U.S.C. § 1681n, willful FCRA violations (Cornell LII)
• 15 U.S.C. § 1681o, negligent FCRA violations (Cornell LII)
• 15 U.S.C. § 1681p, FCRA time limits (Cornell LII)
• 47 U.S.C. § 227, Telephone Consumer Protection Act (Cornell LII)
• 15 U.S.C. § 1692k, FDCPA civil liability (Cornell LII)
• AnnualCreditReport.com
• National Do Not Call Registry
• CFPB: Submit a complaint