Damages, Fees, and Costs in Credit Report Litigation
Damages, Fees, and Costs in Credit Report Litigation The Fair Credit Reporting Act offers consumers many different forms of financial relief for violations of the Act by credit reporting agencies and companies that report to them. For the sake of simplicity, we will refer to all potential financial compensation for violations of the FCRA as […]
Credit Report Errors: Disputes and Lawsuits Under the FCRA
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) defines two different types of disputes of inaccurate information on your credit report — “direct disputes” and “indirect disputes” — and it may surprise you which one provides the consumer with more rights. When you dispute incorrect information on your credit report directly to the company that is the […]
Ramirez v. TransUnion – Blow to Consumers, but SCOTUS fails to bar FCRA claims based on emotional harm without publication
There is a lot of talk today about the United States Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision concerning the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) in TRANSUNION LLC v. RAMIREZ, and rightfully so. For those who wish to read Justice Kavanaugh’s opinion, it is linked here. We will refrain from posting a detailed analysis of the opinion. The […]
Mistakes on your credit report? A guide…
Your credit report is a record of your creditworthiness. Chances are, every payment you’ve made to a big label credit card, mortgage servicer, or student loan debt servicer is on your credit report with one or more of the big three nationwide credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Lately, a fourth credit bureau, Innovis, has […]
Reasonable FCRA dispute investigation… Who decides?
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is intended to protect consumers from the consequences of inaccurate credit reporting. Among other things, the FCRA requires both credit bureaus and furnishers to conduct reasonable investigations of consumer credit disputes and delete, modify, or appropriately update disputed credit report information that cannot be affirmatively verified as accurate. The […]
False criminal record on background check report
False criminal records on background check reports are far too common. This year, Sherman & Ticchio has observed a substantial uptick in the number of people who call us after losing out on jobs (or losing existing jobs) because of inaccurate background check reports. We have also seen a big jump in the number of […]
Alive, but described as deceased on your credit report?
Are you very much alive BUT being described as deceased by a credit bureau (like Equifax, Experian, and/or TransUnion)? You may be surprised to hear that this happens pretty much every day. Why? Because the credit bureaus do not have reasonable procedures to prevent you from being incorrectly classified as deceased.There are two primary scenarios […]
Are all mixed file cases willful FCRA violations?
In our view, punitive damages under the Fair Credit Reporting Act are appropriate in all mixed file cases. To recap from some of our prior blog posts, a mixed file (a/k/a a mIxed credit file) happens — as the name suggests — when a consumer reporting agency (a/k/a a credit bureau or CRA) mixes personal […]
CFPB: Credit bureaus and creditors often seek to avoid the duty to reasonably investigate consumer disputes
On November 10, 2022 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued “Consumer Financial Protection Circular 2022-07 – Reasonable Investigation of consumer reporting disputes.” Below are key excerpts from CFPB Circular 2022-07. You can read the full document here. [Congress enacted the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)] to prevent consumers from being unjustly damaged because of […]
Potent remedies available for FCRA violations
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), a fee-shifting statute, offers potent remedies to consumers who prevail at trial. We will take a brief look at those remedies in today’s post. Negligent and Willful FCRA Violations There are two types of violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. When a jury finds a credit bureau (a/k/a […]
Mixed Files by Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires consumer reporting agencies (a/k/a credit bureaus or CRAs) to maintain reasonable procedures to assure the “maximum possible accuracy” of the information the CRAs report about you. Unfortunately, procedures followed by credit bureaus like Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion are often less than what is reasonable to assure maximum possible […]
Dispute credit card fraud
Chase, American Express, Citibank, and others don’t believe that you didn’t charge a vacation to Las Vegas? Your bank doesn’t believe that you did not buy a thousand-dollar television at BestBuy or on Amazon?What should you do when your credit card does issuer does not agree that you are a victim of fraud? The answer is […]