Most credit report errors are fixed by the dispute process. The ones that are not tend to have something in common: you sent the proof, the item came back “verified,” and nothing on the report changed. That is the point at which a lawyer becomes useful, because the question stops being what the report says and becomes what the companies did when you told them it was wrong.
The errors that turn into claims
- Someone else’s accounts on your file. A mixed file, usually where you share a name, an address history, or a similar Social Security number with another person.
- Paid, settled or discharged debts still reported as owing. Including balances that survive a bankruptcy discharge.
- Accounts opened through identity theft that stay on the file after you report the fraud.
- Items deleted after a dispute and then put back without the notice the statute requires.
- A deceased indicator on the file of someone who is alive — which stops applications outright rather than just lowering a score.
- Duplicate reporting, where an account appears once from the original creditor and again from a collector who bought it.
What a lawyer does that a dispute letter cannot
A consumer dispute is answered by whatever the agency and the furnisher choose to tell you. Litigation is answered by what they have to produce.
That is the practical difference. The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires a consumer reporting agency to conduct a reasonable reinvestigation, and requires the company that supplied the information to investigate, review what the agency sent, 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 looked at, if anyone did. Those records come out in a case and nowhere else.
The other difference is who is answerable. A dispute goes to the agency. A claim can reach the agency, the furnisher, or both, depending on where the process broke down.
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 the date you first saw the error is worth writing down the day you see it.
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.
Where your situation fits
If you have not disputed yet, or your dispute is still running, start with our page on the credit report dispute lawyer stage. If the dispute has already failed and the question is who can be sued, the FCRA lawsuit page sets that out. Where the error is another person’s account on your file, see mixed credit report lawsuit; where it is one of the bureaus refusing to correct, see suing a credit bureau.
What to send us
- The report showing the error, with the date you pulled it
- The dispute you sent and proof of when it was sent
- Every response you received, including any 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
Have your report reviewed
The Kim Law Firm represents consumers in Fair Credit Reporting Act cases against the 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 report reviewed.
Admitted in Pennsylvania and New Jersey; available to appear pro hac vice in other federal courts.