Wright's location was one of 32 in Oklahoma operated by Noble and its affiliated companies. Together, they have filed at least 16,834 lawsuits against their customers since the beginning of 2009, according to ProPublica's analysis of Oklahoma court records, the most of any lender in the state.

Such suits are common in Oklahoma: ProPublica tallied more than 95,000 suits by high-cost lenders in the past five years. The suits amounted to more than one-tenth of all collections suits in 2011, the last year for which statewide filing statistics are available.

Anthony Gentry is president and chief executive of the privately held Noble and its affiliated companies, which operate more than 220 stores across 10 states under various business names. In a written response, he offered several reasons why his companies might sue more than other lenders.

His https://worldpaydayloans.com/payday-loans-tn/erwin/ companies focus on lending to customers who are currently working, he said, and therefore have wages that can be garnished under court orders. Under federal law, one-quarter of a person's wages may be eligible for garnishment as long as they are above the threshold of $ per week. (Federal benefits such as Social Security are off-limits.) Some states further restrict how much can be seized, but Oklahoma is not one of them. Read more