Three companies decide what most lenders, landlords and insurers are told about you: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. When one of them reports something that is not true and will not take it off after you say so, the problem stops being clerical. It becomes a question of what that company did with your dispute, and that is a question its own records answer.
When a bureau becomes the problem
Most errors are fixed by the dispute process. The ones that are not tend to look like this:
- You sent proof. The item came back “verified” and nothing changed.
- One bureau corrected it and the other two did not, so the file is right in one place and wrong in two.
- The item was deleted and then reappeared weeks later.
- The bureau referred you back to the company that reported the item, as though the report were not also its own.
- The response arrived as a form letter that did not engage with the documents you sent.
What the bureau owes you
The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires a consumer reporting agency to follow reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy of the information it reports about you. That duty exists before you complain about anything.
Once you dispute an item, the agency must conduct a reasonable reinvestigation, and the company that supplied the information — the furnisher — has its own duty to investigate, review what the agency sent it, and report back.
Whether either of them actually did so is recorded in their own systems: the dispute file, the automated codes passed between them, the record of what a human being reviewed, if anyone did. Those records come out in a case and nowhere else. That is the practical difference between disputing and suing. A dispute is answered by whatever the bureau chooses to tell you. Litigation is answered by what it has to produce.
The bureau, the furnisher, or both
People often assume the bureau simply passes along what it is given. The statute does not treat it that way. A bureau that keeps reporting an item after a dispute, without a reinvestigation worth the name, can be answerable for the report itself — separately from whoever supplied the information.
In practice a claim may reach the bureau, the furnisher, or both, depending on where the process broke down. Working that out is most of the early work in a case, and it is why the dispute paperwork matters so much.
What the statute allows
For a negligent violation, a consumer may recover any actual damages sustained as a result of the failure, together with the costs of the action and reasonable attorney’s fees as determined by the court.
For a willful violation, a consumer may recover actual damages or statutory damages of not less than $100 and not more than $1,000, plus such punitive damages as the court may allow, and again costs and reasonable attorney’s fees.
Actual damages are wider than a declined application. A higher interest rate on the loan you did get, a rental refused, a job offer withdrawn after a screening report, and the months spent trying to correct something that would not be corrected all count.
The deadline
An action must be brought no later than two years after you discover the violation, or five years after the violation occurred, whichever comes first. Dispute cycles run in months, so write down the date you first saw the error.
What it costs
The fee provision is written into the Act: in a successful action the costs and reasonable attorney’s fees are recoverable from the defendant, as determined by the court. That is why this work is handled on a contingency basis rather than billed by the hour.
You pay nothing unless we win.
What to send us
- The report from each bureau showing the error, with the date you pulled it
- The dispute you sent, to which bureau, and proof of when it was sent
- Every response, including any letter saying the item was verified
- Documents proving the entry is wrong — a payoff letter, a settlement agreement, a discharge order, an identity theft report
- Any denial letter or adverse action notice naming the report
Pull all three files, not one. A file that is correct at one bureau and wrong at the other two is itself evidence about the reinvestigation.
Where your situation fits
For what the Fair Credit Reporting Act requires generally, and the firm’s work under it, see our FCRA lawyer page. If you have decided to bring a claim against a bureau and want the mechanics, see suing a credit bureau. If the error is on the report rather than with a particular bureau, see credit report errors lawyer. If you are still at the dispute stage, start with credit report dispute lawyer. Where another person’s accounts are on your file, see mixed credit report lawsuit.
Have your file reviewed
The Kim Law Firm represents consumers in Fair Credit Reporting Act cases against the nationwide credit bureaus, the specialty reporting agencies, and the companies that furnish information to them. Send us what you have and we will tell you whether we see a claim.
Contact us to have your file reviewed.
Admitted in Pennsylvania and New Jersey; available to appear pro hac vice in other federal courts.