Court slaps credit agency (Experian) for ruining man's reputation

[Newsjock]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

SAN FRANCISCO - A federal appeals court has reversed itself and ruled that a Southern California man's rights were violated by a credit agency that put an erroneous court filing on his record, refused to change it when he complained and wrecked his hopes of starting a business.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco had voted 2-1 in May to dismiss Jason Dennis' lawsuit, saying the credit agency had conducted an adequate investigation of his case. But on Tuesday, the same panel, by a 3-0 ruling, not only reinstated the suit but also found the agency negligent for failing to correct the error.

The court told a federal judge who had previously dismissed the suit to decide how much Dennis should receive in damages and attorney's fees from Experian Information Solutions, a credit reporting agency. The court also said Dennis was entitled to a trial on his claim that Experian failed to adopt reasonable procedures to assure accurate reporting, which could lead to additional damages.

Read more: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/09/26/BAJ5SEMHR.DTL&tsp=1

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

1. Go Ninth!

MKJ

[graywarrior]

2. Awesome.

[earthboundmisfit]

3. About time these m-fers were held accountable for situations like this.

Multiply what happened to Jason Dennis times hundreds of thousands... These assholes have RUINED PEOPLE'S LIVES. :grr:

[Turner Ashby]

4. This seems strange.

They have always been held responsible if the person/person's attorney followed the rules of notification of the bankruptcy, or notification of incorrect credit information.

[sandnsea]

6. Attorney?

Why should someone need to hire an attorney to correct information with a credit company.

[Polemicist]

7. Public records are different...

Than other credit references reported to the credit bureaus. Most credit references are what are called "trade line items", like bank loans, mortgages, or credit cards, that are reported by organizations who exchange information with the credit bureau and report trade line information on their customers to the bureau. That's "third party" reporting, and the bureaus have a bit less direct liability for errors if the data is reported incorrectly to them by these third parties. Most of these trade line items are reported digitally to the bureau by these third party creditors.

However, public record repositories in most places, don't exchange information digitally with the credit bureau, and most courthouses aren't exchanging data with the credit bureaus. Therefore, public records aren't "third party" information, but rather collected by employees of the credit bureau and is "first person" information gathered by the bureau itself. In other words, credit bureau employees actually physically go to the courthouse and check public records and come back and input the data into the credit bureau computers.

In this case, a Experian employee or contractor incorrectly gathered the public records data and when the individual contested the information in his credit file and presented documentation that differed from what Experian had in the report for that person, Experian refused to accept the documentation and/or properly research the matter to see if they did in fact make an error.

I'm not an attorney, but that sounds like willful negligence to me, that harmed the person who filed the lawsuit.

[acmavm]

9. Oh yes, it was intentional negligence and no doubt libel in some

form or another. I used to do that work, collect public record information at courthouses for a credit reporting company (worked strictly for mortgage companies). We had to be SOOOO careful and if the person in question disputed the information, we had to investigate it thoroughly.

Just need to say that job was so interesting. And you would never believe some of the schemes and scams I ran into. Everything from people with multiple social security numbers to the Russian mob.

I LOVED THAT JOB! Unfortunately it didn't pay.

[Steve_in_California]

5. Very good!

Finally, the courts seem to be getting it.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

8. getting these clowns to do anything without suing them is almost impossible,

We had a client who was a man named Lindsey - this guy didn't have a penny in debt, not so much as a student loan. A woman also named Lindsey with the same last name but 20 years his senior filed for bankruptcy and a credit agency that will remain nameless due to the out of court settlement attributed a bunch of this womans debts to the other Lindsey.

All of the sudden this poor guy was said to be owing damn near $80,000 to everyone from Verizon to Sears and the fact that he was a MAN and 20 YEARS younger than the bankrupt Lindsey didn't seem to be of interest to anybody, he didn't even know there was anything wrong till his credit card interest rate exploded because of "universal default" by which a lender will raise your rate because your credit risk is said to be increased because of non-payment of other obligations.

One of the credit card companies (with whom he did not have a card) was actually very helpful in removing the wrongfully assigned debt, but others including Sears wouldn't do a damn thing and actually forwarded his phone number and address to their collection agency after he contacted them.

Once our lawyers got involved the credit agency backed down within a week and offered a settlement that ended up being his legal expenses and $15,000, but it took lawyers to get it fixed. At that time he was about to legally change his name to Lynn and his mothers maiden name.