WHAT ARE THE TOP THREE REASONS TO SUE EQUIFAX?
Equifax is one of the major credit reporting agencies that maintains and publishes credit information about American consumers. When it comes to compliance with consumer protection laws and consumer rights, Equifax has a troubled regulatory history. The largest of its failures occurred in 2017 when Equifax failed to protect consumer credit data as part of a massive security breach. This data breach exposed names, social security numbers, and credit card information for over 147 million Americans. As a consumer protection law firm dedicated to assisting consumers with resolving credit report inaccuracies, we have a unique insight into Equifax’s practices as well as the evolution of its processing and procedures. Presently, we feel that the top three reasons to sue Equifax are based on its reckless consumer dispute reinvestigation process, publication of inaccurate credit information, and failure to delete identity theft related account information.
Failure To Properly Reinvestigation Inaccurate Credit Accounts
Pursuant to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, consumers have a right to dispute inaccurate information on their credit reports. Inaccurate credit report information that supports suing Equifax is information that is objectively inaccurate in a consumer’s credit history. Objectively inaccurate credit information is information that is false or misleading. Examples of objectively inaccurate credit information can include accounts that are reporting late when they were paid on time, fraudulently opened identity theft accounts, accounts reporting inaccurately after bankruptcy, accounts that report a charge-off inaccurately, etc. After a consumer disputes inaccurate information, Equifax has a duty to conduct a reasonable reinvestigation, communicate all relevant information to the furnisher reporting the information, review and consider the information provided by the consumer, and verify that the disputed information should remain on the consumers credit report. Unfortunately for consumers, Equifax steadfastly fails in its FCRA obligations and chooses instead to outsource those duties entirely to third parties that it fails to reasonably monitor and supervise.
Reporting Inaccurate Information On A Credit Report
Equifax reports various types of inaccurate information on credit reports, and its failure to report accurate information is one of the top three reasons to sue Equifax. Equifax has falsely reported a person as deceased when that is not true, which can make it impossible for the person to obtain credit, employment, or housing. Equifax also has a long history of mixing consumer credit files, which results in one consumer having the inaccurate derogatory information of another consumer included in their credit history. Our firm has obtained two different jury verdicts against Equifax for their reporting of inaccurate mixed credit file information. In the matter of Robinson v. Equifax Information Services, LLC, we obtained a jury verdict of $200,000 for Equifax’s violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. In another Equifax inaccurate mixed credit file case, we obtained a total jury verdict in excess of $250,000 in the matter of Sloane v. Equifax Information Services, LLC. Mixed credit files are very damaging for a consumer, and Equifax has a history of failing to correct and publish accurate credit information for consumers with mixed credit files.
Failing to Remove Identity Theft Related Accounts
Equifax knows how frequently identity theft affects consumers and profits from consumer’s fears of identity theft by selling credit monitoring products. The reality is that Equifax will not review and consider a consumer’s identity theft claims absent narrow circumstances when a consumer provides a “valid identity theft report.” Even after receiving notice of the identity theft, notice of the police report, and the police report number with officer’s name, Equifax still does not reasonably reinvestigate a consumer’s identity theft claim in many instances. Instead, Equifax will generally outsource the dispute, send an electronic notice to the furnisher who typically allowed the identity theft account to be opened, and after receiving a response from the furnisher containing the faulty data, allow the account to remain on a consumer’s credit report without a full review of the information provided to Equifax by the consumer. Our firm recently obtained a $195,000 offer of judgment from Equifax in an identity theft case after Equifax refused to delete an identity theft related account from our client’s Equifax credit report on multiple occasions.
If you believe you are the victim of inaccurate credit report data on your Equifax credit file, you need the assistance of legal counsel that is familiar with its procedures and can represent your interests.
Contact Blankingship & Christiano P.C. to Speak with a Credit Report Error Lawyer
If you have an error on your credit report and need legal help getting it corrected contact the Virginia Credit report error lawyers at Blankingship & Christiano, P.C. (571) 307-6419 or fill out our contact form to discuss your case.
