A 1340 New Jersey General Assembly · 2026-2027 Regular Session

Requires Administrative Office of the Courts to collect and publish statistical information about consumer debt lawsuits.

This New Jersey bill requires the Administrative Office of the Courts to collect and publish detailed statistics about consumer debt lawsuits. It mandates reporting on key metrics like new filings (by court division), pending cases over 3 months, defendant attorney representation, judgments (including defaults), and other dispositions. The data must be published annually at both statewide and county levels. This directly affects courts, creditors, and consumers by increasing transparency around a common legal issue involving credit or medical debt. The bill does not change debt collection laws but creates a public record to inform stakeholders about lawsuit patterns.

Bill status passed 3 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2026

Committee Review

May 2026

General Assembly Passage

May 2026

Senate Passage

Governor

Introduced Jan 13, 2026 Last action May 18, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

Technical Review Of Prefiled Bill → Introduced · 2 edits · Jan 13, 2026

MINOR

The bill moved from technical review status to introduced status. A new STATEMENT section was added at the end of the bill providing an explanatory summary of its purpose: requiring the Administrative Office of the Courts to collect and publish annual statistics on consumer debt collection lawsuits. No changes were made to the operative text of the bill itself.

TECHNICAL

Bill status changed from 'As reported by the Assembly Regulated Professions Committee with technical review' to 'Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel,' and the header designation 'TR' was removed.

A STATEMENT section was added summarizing the bill's purpose: requiring the AOC to publish annual statistics on consumer debt collection lawsuits, including new filings, pending cases over three months, attorney representation rates, judgments granted (including defaults), other dispositions, and any additional statistics the Administrative Director deems appropriate. The statement notes this implements Benchmarks 23 and 24 from the National Center for Access to Justice's March 2024 Consumer Debt Litigation Index report.

Floor votes

How they voted

This bill passed the General Assembly by voice vote (no roll call recorded).

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

May 18, 2026

Committee

Received in the Senate, Referred to Senate Commerce Committee

upper

May 18, 2026

Lower · Passed

Passed by the Assembly (77-0-0)

lower

Feb 12, 2026

Lower · Passed

Reported out of Assembly Committee, 2nd Reading

lower

Feb 12, 2026

Committee

Transferred to Assembly Regulated Professions Committee

lower

Jan 13, 2026

Introduced

Introduced, Referred to Assembly Consumer Affairs Committee

lower

2 primary · 0 co-sponsors