Fair Credit Reporting Act suits are increasing. Consumers are bringing in such cases that have won multimillion-dollar verdicts and settlements in cases involving industries credit bureaus TransUnion and Equifax.
New reports show that violations of the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act have more than doubled in the past ten years. Privacy and accuracy are a growing concern for consumers using credit reports and background checks from reliable companies.
Abbas Kazerounian of Kazerouni Law group cited two factors that were most likely the cause of this increase of violations; the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis and the rise of identity theft through cyber-crime. Many consumers found that they had inaccurate credit report information after they had filed bankruptcy of which could only be challenged with an FCRA suit. Credit reporting agencies do not always recognize these inaccuracies, and therefore put you at risk.
There have been most recent cases filed over background checks that employers have misused during their recruitments. A report by Lex Machina examined more than 132,000 consumer lawsuits filed in all federal district courts between 2009 ad 2018 and contains information filed under the: FCRA, FDCPA, TILA, and TCPA. In 2009 there were 412 cases, and between 2014-2018 there was a jump of more than 3,000 cases each year.
Jones Day appeared in 84 of the 94 U.S. federal districts and saw nearly three times as many consumer cases in the three-year period from 2016 to 2018 than it did from 2010 to 2012.
The three most active defendants in these cases are: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion LLC. Between 2016-2018, Equifax Inc. & Equifax Information Services LLC handled 5,002 cases, Experian handled 3,115, and TransUnion had 2,994. An FCRA claim was made against every case involved with Equifax Information Services. According to Lex Machina
This was a summary of article: Fair Credit Reporting Act Suits Have Soared Over Last Decade
By: Ben Kochman
Cited: https://www.law360.com/articles/1210252/fair-credit-reporting-act-suits-have-soared-over-last-decade
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