Skip to Content (Press Enter)

Skip to Nav (Press Enter)

Effective, Experienced, Exceptional.

Firm Profile

Frivolous Dispute

Subscribe to Consumer Finance

Thank you for your desire to subscribe to Severson & Werson’s Consumer Finance Weblog. In order to subscribe, you must provide a valid name and e-mail address. This too will be retained on our server. When you push the “subscribe button”, we will send an electronic mail to the address that you provided asking you to confirm your subscription to our Weblog. By pushing the “subscribe button”, you represent and warrant that you are over the age of 18 years old, are the owner/authorized user of that e-mail address, and are entitled to receive e-mails at that address. Our weblog will retain your name and e-mail address on its server, or the server of its web host. However, we won’t share any of this information with anyone except the Firm’s employees and contractors, except under certain extraordinary circumstances described on our Privacy Policy and (About The Consumer Finance Blog/About the Appellate Tracker Weblog) Page. NOTICE AND AGREEMENT REGARDING E-MAILS AND CALLS/TEXT MESSAGES TO LAND-LINE AND WIRELESS TELEPHONES: By providing your contact information and confirming your subscription in response to the initial e-mail that we send you, you agree to receive e-mail messages from Severson & Werson from time-to-time and understand and agree that such messages are or may be sent by means of automated dialing technology. If you have your email forwarded to other electronic media, including text messages and cellular telephone by way of VoIP, internet, social media, or otherwise, you agree to receive my messages in that way. This may result in charges to you. Your agreement and consent also extend to any other agents, affiliates, or entities to whom our communications are forwarded. You agree that you will notify Severson & Werson in writing if you revoke this agreement and that your revocation will not be effective until you notify Severson & Werson in writing. You understand and agree that you will afford Severson & Werson a reasonable time to unsubscribe you from the website, that the ability to do so depends on Severson & Werson’s press of business and access to the weblog, and that you may still receive one or more emails or communications from weblog until we are able to unsubscribe you.

3rd Circuit Finds that FCRA Affords Furnishers No Discretion to Determine that an Indirect Dispute is Frivolous so as to Not Investigate the Dispute

by Scott J. Hyman |

In Ingram v. Experian Info. Sols., Inc., No. 21-2430, 2023 WL 6386517, at *1 (3d Cir. Oct. 2, 2023), the Court of Appeals held that furnishers are permitted to find that a direct dispute submitted by a consumer is frivolous, and consumer reporting agencies may find that an indirect dispute submitted by a consumer is frivolous, but the FCRA provides… Read More

District Court (Minn.) Says Charged-Off Debt Remains Owing, and It’s Not Inaccurate to Report It

by Scott J. Hyman |

In Towle v. TD Bank USA, N.A., No. 22-CV-0624 (PJS/TNL), 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 146898, at *1-3 (D. Minn. Aug. 17, 2022), Judge Schiltz dismissed a credit reporting claim premised on the grounds that reporting charged off debt is inaccurate because, allegedly, it's not owing anymore.  Judge Schiltz found the allegation to be frivolous. Towle filed his original complaint on… Read More

District Court (N.M.) Says Furnisher Owes No Duty to Report Account as “Disputed” When Dispute is Meritless

by Scott J. Hyman |

In Fredrickson v. Cannon Federal Credit Union, 2017 WL 6558578, at *4 (D.N.M., 2017), Judge Brack granted summary judgment to a furnisher who allegedly failed to report a consumer's dispute as "disputed" because, Judge Brack said, the dispute was meritless. Furnishers can breach their § 1681s–2(b) duties if they fail to report the existence of a dispute because such an omission… Read More

District Court (Cal.) Addresses Adequacy of FCRA Pleading Requirements; Frivilous FCRA Claims; Finds FCRA Pre-empts Libel Claims

by Scott J. Hyman |

In Vartanian v. Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC, 2013 WL 877863 (C.D.Cal. 2013), Judge Otis Wright III addressed a litany of FCRA and FDCPA claims brought by the Kaas Law Group.  Judge Wright held that a FCRA Plaintiff need not plead that its dispute to the CRA was not frivilous; i.e. non-frivilousness is not an element of a FCRA claim. Contrary… Read More

District Court (Cal.) Finds No FCRA or CCRAA Violation in Reporting Bankruptcy Discharged Debt

by Scott J. Hyman |

In Mortimer v. Bank of America, N.A.  2012 WL 6218004 (N.D.Cal. 2012), Judge Spero addressed the interplay between bankrupt debt and credit reporting, finding that Plaintiff stated no FCRA or CCRAA claim.  The facts were as follows: Plaintiff Mark Mortimer (“Plaintiff”) brings this action against Defendant Bank of America, N.A., (“Defendant”) FN1 seeking redress for Defendant's alleged inaccurate reporting of his… Read More