District Court (Ga.) Says FCRA Plaintiffs’ Expert Survives Daubert Challenge

This case arises from an alleged mix-up of consumer credit files, sale of inaccurate information to creditors, and a failure to fix the problem. Dkt. No. [1]. Plaintiff alleges these problems occurred when another person’s credit information became incorrectly attached to his and that Defendant failed to fix the error when it was brought to its attention. Id.  Plaintiff alleges that Defendant violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”) by not conducting a reasonable reinvestigation when Plaintiff disputed the completeness or accuracy of his credit report, and not following reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy when issuing a credit report. Plaintiff also alleges that Defendant has suffered from mix ups in the past and therefore knows about the potential for mix ups, but chooses to ignore the risk.  Plaintiff has disclosed Evan Hendricks as an expert in support of his claims. Plaintiff notes that Mr. Hendricks has (1) closely studied the credit reporting industry for more than 35 years; (2) published a newsletter and written a book on the credit reporting industry; (3) testified as an expert in several FCRA trials; (4) testified several times before Congress on FCRA issues; and (5) had access via discovery to many of Defendant’s documents that are not generally publically available. Defendant contends that Mr. Hendricks’s testimony must be excluded by the Court under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharms., Inc., 509 U.S. 579, 592 (1993), and Federal Rule of Evidence 702. . . In accordance with the foregoing, the Court DENIES Defendant’s Motion to Exclude [41]. Plaintiff has met his burden under Daubert. The Court finds that these matters are more properly handled with cross examination and evidentiary objections at trial.