The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama joined a growing number of courts dismissing FCRA claims based upon a furnisher’s alleged failure to remove an “account in dispute” notation from consumer credit reports. In Griffin v. Experian Information Solutions, Inc., No. 1:20-cv-801-RAH-SMD, 2021 WL 3782141 (M.D. Ala. Aug. 26, 2021), the plaintiff had four accounts that were marked as “in dispute.” The plaintiff decided to dispute the “account in dispute” notation by contacting consumer reporting agencies (CRAs) rather than the furnishers ...
On August 26, 2021, the Florida Supreme Court amended the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure to adopt the so-called “apex doctrine” that protects high-level corporate officers from abusive discovery. Generally speaking, jurisdictions that adopt the apex doctrine require a party seeking to depose high ranking officials in a company or government agency to demonstrate that the party seeking discovery has exhausted less burdensome means to obtain the discovery and that the high-level official has a unique ability to provide relevant information that cannot be obtained from ...
In line with the recent trend of courts giving increased scrutiny to standing in consumer finance cases, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed an appeal this week under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”) for lack of Article III standing in Ward v. National Patient Account Services Solutions, Inc., No. 20-5902, 2021 WL 3616067, -- F.4th -- (6th Cir. Aug. 16, 2021). The plaintiff alleged that NPAS, Inc. left him voicemails regarding his medical debt which simply identified itself as “NPAS” rather than “NPAS, Inc.,” which confused him as to the correct ...
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) was enacted to promote the accuracy, fairness, and privacy of information maintained by Consumer Reporting Agencies (CRAs). In addition to imposing duties on the CRAs, it requires furnishers of information to provide accurate and complete information to the CRAs and to investigate any consumer disputes regarding the accuracy of that information. Increased claims of identity theft by consumers have given rise to more disputes that accounts are not accurately being reported as belonging to those consumers. These “identity theft” ...