Steketee Law Firm · Fair Credit Reporting Act
15 U.S.C. § 1681
The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires a standard of accuracy, a real dispute process, and duties for the companies that supply and use consumer reports. When that process fails, the harm is often a denial, a lost job, or a file you no longer recognize.
Whether a specific company is covered, and whether it violated the statute, depends on the facts. That is the review.
Depending on the claim and the proof, the FCRA can allow actual damages, statutory damages in certain willful cases, and attorney’s fees. Correction of the file matters. So does the harm the error caused while it stood.
Nothing on this page is a prediction of your result.
Matters
These are the patterns we see. Your documents decide whether any of them is a case.
Balances, dates, statuses, and tradelines that do not match the underlying account. A dispute that comes back verified, with no sign anyone looked, is part of the story.
Another person’s history folded into yours. Similar names and addresses are a common cause. The damage is not theoretical when a lender or employer relies on it.
Accounts and inquiries you did not open. The FCRA includes tools for blocking information that results from identity theft. When those tools are ignored, the firm looks at why.
A report prepared for employment that recites the wrong case, the wrong person, or a record that should not be there. An adverse-action notice is a document worth keeping.
Information that has outlived the period the statute allows, or a notation — including a report that you are deceased — that is simply false.
The company that supplied the item has its own duties after a dispute, including a duty to investigate. A bureau and a furnisher can both be in the same narrative.
Accuracy and completeness of a consumer report. A dispute and whether the bureau or the furnisher actually investigated. The companies that furnish the data. The nationwide bureaus and specialty consumer-reporting agencies. Background checks and employment reports. Identity theft. A mixed file. A false statement that the consumer is deceased. An adverse-action notice when credit, housing, insurance, or a job turned on that report.
A true negative item can remain. The statute is not a promise that every mark comes off. We read whether the papers support a claim.