STATE OF NEW JERSEY
222nd LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2026 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman CODY D. MILLER
District 4 (Atlantic, Camden and Gloucester)
Assemblyman DAN HUTCHISON
District 4 (Atlantic, Camden and Gloucester)
SYNOPSIS
Requires Administrative Office of the Courts to collect and publish statistical information about consumer debt lawsuits.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel.
An Act concerning court statistics for consumer debt lawsuits, and supplementing Title 56 of the New Jersey Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. As used in this section, “consumer debt lawsuit” means a civil action commenced in the Superior Court seeking to enforce a contract for consumer credit, as that term is defined under section 1 of P.L.1974, c.146 (C.56:11-1), or to collect a medical debt, as that term is defined under section 2 of P.L.2024, c.48 (C.56:11-57).
b. The Administrative Director of the Courts shall, in addition to any other civil litigation statistics currently being compiled and publicly reported by the Administrative Office of the Courts, compile and publicly report the following Statewide and county-level consumer debt lawsuit statistics:
(1) number of new consumer debt lawsuits filed, including the number filed in the Law Division, the Special Civil Part, and the Small Claims Section of the Special Civil Part;
(2) number of consumer debt lawsuits currently pending for three months or more;
(3) number of consumer debt lawsuits where the defendant is represented by an attorney;
(4) number of consumer debt lawsuit judgments granted, including the number of default judgments;
(5) number of consumer debt lawsuit dispositions other than the granting of a judgment; and
(6) any other statistics concerning consumer debt lawsuits that the Administrative Director of the Courts deems appropriate.
c. The statistics compiled pursuant to subsection b. of this section shall be reported annually to the Governor and, pursuant to section 2 of P.L.1991, c.164 (C.52:14-19.1), to the Legislature.
2. This act shall take effect on the first day of the fourth month next following enactment, except that the Administrative Director of the Courts may take such anticipatory action as may be necessary for the timely implementation of this act.
STATEMENT
This bill requires the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) to collect and publish certain statistical information about civil consumer debt collection lawsuits in an annual report to the Governor and the Legislature. The statistics include:
(1) number of new consumer debt lawsuits filed, including the number filed in the Law Division, the Special Civil Part, and the Small Claims Section of the Special Civil Part;
(2) number of consumer debt lawsuits currently pending for three months or more;
(3) number of consumer debt lawsuits where the defendant is represented by an attorney;
(4) number of consumer debt lawsuit judgments granted, including the number of default judgments;
(5) number of consumer debt lawsuit dispositions other than the granting of a judgment; and
(6) any other statistics concerning consumer debt lawsuits that the Administrative Director of the Courts deems appropriate.
Currently, the AOC publishes monthly civil case statistics on the Judiciary’s website. While the statistics are broken down by certain case types, such as personal injury, landlord/tenant, and insurance, these statistics do not differentiate consumer debt collection cases. This bill implements Benchmarks 23 and 24 by the National Center for Access to Justice (NCAJ) at Fordham University School of Law, in its March 2024 report, “The Consumer Debt Litigation Index.” According to the NCAJ, a basic understanding of the consumer debt litigation landscape through statistical reporting is required for court personnel, lawmakers, advocates, and communities to understand the scope of the problems in consumer debt claims litigation, and to solve or ameliorate these problems.