The company had filed thousands of lawsuits against borrowers after they fell behind on payments, including throughout the pandemic. Yet the states justice courts are excluded from this requirement, making a complete accounting of debt lawsuits impossible unless the states 803 justice courts choose to make their records public. In eight of the nine counties, Oportun Inc. was a top filer of lawsuits during the pandemic. (In Denton County, where Oportun filed comparatively fewer suits, the company has just one retail location.) All told, Oportun filed more lawsuits than any other personal loan company and was the second-most litigious company overall during the pandemic and the first six months of the year.

Allie Goulding/The Texas TribuneThis article is co-published with ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for ProPublicas Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox as soon as they are published. A Silicon Valley-based installment lender that caters to Latino immigrants announced on Tuesday that it would drop all the lawsuits it has filed against borrowers who fell behind on payments, including during the coronavirus pandemic. That reporting has included interviews with individuals whom Oportun sued in small claims courts across the state, as well as numerous consumer advocates. Court records show that it has filed thousands of debt claims in Texas this year alone and tens of thousands since 2016.