FCRA

Plaintiff tried to refinance her Wells Fargo home loan with another lender but that effort was thwarted by a fraudulent third party's lien on the property.  Plaintiff contends that Wells Fargo should have helped her remove the fraudulent lien, but instead it started foreclosure proceedings on her loan.  She filed a Chapter 13 bankruptcy to avoid the foreclosure and listed… Read More

Though not limited by US Const. Art. III case or controversy standing requirements, California court apply prudential standing requirements.  Absent a statutory grant of standing to represent the general public, a plaintiff must generally show that he has a beneficial interest in the claim he pursues.  A statute like FCRA that allows for statutory damages that are intended to compensate… Read More

Under the FCRA, a furnisher of credit information must make a reasonable investigation if the consumer about whom it furnishes information to a credit reporting bureau properly protests the inaccuracy of the furnisher's information.  Furnishers, unlike credit reporting agencies, may be required to investigate the legal as well as factual bases of the information it furnishes.  Here, CitiMortgage continued to… Read More

This decision reverses a summary judgment for defendant, finding a triable issue of fact as to whether defendant willfully violated the FCRA's requirement that an employer provide a job applicant a stand alone disclosure of its potential use of credit reports for employment screening.  (15 USC 1681b(b)(2)(A).)  Wilful for this purpose includes reckless conduct that increases the risk of violation… Read More

The FCRA (15 U.S.C. 1681g does not require the CRA to disclose to a consumer on request information that the CRA collects on a consumer but would not place in a consumer credit report given to an actual or potential creditor, nor soft credit inquiries that, likewise are not reported in credit reports, nor information derived from the consumer's file… Read More

On remand after a prior appeal decided in plaintiff's favor, the district court granted defendant summary judgment finding that defendant was not negligent or willful in including in its credit report mention of plaintiff's criminal charge that was filed more than 7 years before the credit report but was dismissed less than 7 years before the report.  This decision affirms… Read More

A job applicant who would not have been hired even if inaccuracies in his credit report were corrected lacked Article III standing to bring a claim against the employer for failure to give him pre-adverse action notice as required by the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Read More

Plaintiff who sued under the Fair Credit Reporting Act alleged a sufficiently concrete injury to ensure his Article III standing in case against information aggregation service who posted incorrect information about his age, marital status, wealth, education level, and profession.   Read More

Prospective employer violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act by including a release of claims in the same document as the statutorily required notice that it might obtain a credit report on the applicant for employment purposes.  Read More

Today the Supreme Court issued its long-awaited opinion in Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins, -- S.Ct. --, No. 13-1339, 2016 WL 2842447, at *6 (U.S. May 16, 2016).  In a victory for defendant Spokeo, the Supreme Court reversed the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, on grounds that the lower court—in finding Robins had Article III standing to sue—had erroneously focused only… Read More