The Federal Trade Commission has sued several debt collection companies over collecting non-existent debts: The agency ordered a federal court in North Carolina to temporarily freeze the assets of the Global Asset Financial Services Group, which the FTC claims ran a so-called “phantom debt” scheme in which employees masqueraded as attorneys or legal assistants to...Read More

The National Consumer Law Center has released a report on state specific debt collection information and complaints.  Most notable is the high percentage of complaints in the South: Seven out of the ten states with the highest per capita number of debt collection complaints in 2017 are in the South (Florida, Georgia, Texas, Alabama, South Carolina,...Read More

The New York Times ran a story on ranking every state’s lemon law: All 50 states and the District of Columbia have “something that is arguably a lemon law,” but too many fail consumers, said Jason Levine, the executive director of the center, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization founded by Ralph Nader. … The states...Read More

A court in the the Middle District of Florida weighed in on the growing improper use of consumer reports (including credit reports) in employment decisions in Gross v. CONCORDE, INC.: As alleged in the Amended Complaint, in 2016 Plaintiff applied for employment with Advanced Disposal Service, Inc. (ADS). Dkt. 25 ¶ 24. As part of the...Read More

A Court in the Middle District of Georgia released an opinion with two important rulings regarding standing under the Fair Credit Reporting Act and what constitutes misleading information.  The Court found in Jackson v. Equifax Info. Servs., LLC: Plaintiff, in his Amended Complaint, makes several allegations that clearly satisfy the injury in fact requirement. For example,...Read More

If you have inaccurate information on your credit report, in most cases, you have to dispute the information through Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion (the CRAs) before you can file a claim under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.  For Texas residents, the process is: Login to Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion and get a current version of...Read More

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau settled claims with Sterling Jewelers, Inc.: The Bureau’s and the State’s parallel investigations found that Sterling violated the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 by opening store credit-card accounts without customer consent; enrolling customers in payment-protection insurance without their consent; and misrepresenting to consumers the financing terms associated with the credit-card...Read More

In Sanders v. Global Radar Acquistion, LLC, a Court in the Middle District of Florida denied a defendant’s motion to dismiss a Fair Credit Reporting Act class action case: This is a fair credit reporting case relating to employment background checks that seeks to hold defendant Global HR Research liable for failing to obtain certain certifications...Read More

A noteworthy Fair Credit Reporting Act opinion came out of the Western District of Washington in late December.  In it, the consumers alleged: Plaintiffs filed this lawsuit alleging that Defendant violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1681s-2(b), the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”), 15 U.S.C. §§ 1692a, 1692e, 1692f, the Washington...Read More

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently recently ruled that Fannie Mae was not liable for false information contained in its Desktop Underwriter software.  As a result: The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a $30,000 verdict and an award of $720,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs to Richard and Kristin Zabriskie, an Arizona couple...Read More