COVID-19/Coronavirus Update | We Are Open
We are currently a fully operational remote office. Fortunately, we represent clients from Alabama to Texas and therefore already had a system in place to provide service to our clients and prospective clients through the telephone or over the internet. We have full access to all files and available to answer any questions on current...Read More
Scary Repo: Child In Car
A self-help car repossession in New Jersey took a terrible turn when the repo agent took a car with a toddler in it: Police say the father put the child in the car outside their East Orange home Wednesday morning before returning inside to grab a bottle. When he returned, the car had been towed...Read More
FCRA Opinion: Ramirez v. Trans Union, LLC
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion in Ramirez v. Trans Union, LLC this week. This case is important because it deals with willful conduct under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and the available punitive damages. The case involved Trans Union inaccurately including information that the consumer was on a terrorist watch...Read More
February Fair Credit Reporting Act News
A story recently came out that lawmakers are interested in changes to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and it shows how the Act may evolve. The Yahoo story on the current bill in Congress reports: The bill would require credit reporting agencies (CRAs) to remove negative comments for private student loan borrowers after completing...Read More
Equifax Credit Reporting Data Breached Linked to China
In 2017, a massive amount of data was hacked and accessed from Equifax, which is one of the major credit reporting agencies in the nation. Much of this data was personal information regarding Americans. This week, officials announced findings that the data breach was linked to Chinese Hacking. As the AP in the Houston Chronicle...Read More
Attempted Homicide Charge in Penn Repo
Law enforcement in Pennsylvania has charged a man with attempted homicide after firing a gun during a repo of this truck: Police say the operator hooked up the truck and began to drive away when a woman ran out of the house after the truck followed by a man waiving a handgun. The man, later...Read More
Mixed Credit Files can cause Disaster
Marketwatch has a lengthy story on credit reporting errors with a focus on marking a consumer as “deceased” when he/she is actually alive. As the story shows, it happens more than it should and there are several different ways it can happen. Some of the most reoccurring ways is when a deceased person’s credit file...Read More
CFPB Reports Complaints of Credit Monitoring Services
Credit Reporting Agencies like TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax have recently started offering consumers credit monitoring services where consumers can pay a fee to presumably keep a closer eye on their credit data. As a story in the American Banker explains, the CFPB complaint database has shown a surge in complaints regarding these services: The charges,...Read More
Medical Debt Collectors Use Court’s Power To Have Debtors Arrested
A troubling story out of Kansas regarding medical debt collectors having debtors arrested for not showing up for court so that they can be questioned for assets: If a debtor missed an exam, the judge typically issued a citation of contempt, a charge for disobeying an order of the court, which in this case was...Read More
CRAs Sue to Stop Maine Medical Debt Law
The Consumer Data Industry Association has sued the state of Maine to prevent new consumer laws from going into effect. As reported by WGME 13, the new laws are: One of the laws prevents reporting agencies from reporting medical debt on a consumer report until the debt is 180 days old and instructs agencies to...Read More