A plaintiff has filed class-action lawsuits against the three major credit bureaus – Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion, alleging that they violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act and New York Fair Credit Reporting Act by listing judgments on credit reports that had been vacated.
A copy of the complaint against Experian can be accessed here. A copy of the complaint against TransUnion can be accessed here.
The bureaus are accused of purchasing judgment information from third-party vendors and then not being willing to spend additional money to receive updates in those cases, to see if a judgement has been vacated, for example.
In this case, the plaintiff had a judgment entered against him, but ultimately had the judgment vacated. The judgment continued to appear on the plaintiff’s credit report and he was denied one application for a credit card because of the judgment and received less favorable terms on another application.
The bureaus are “aware that its vendors have the ability to update their information regarding civil court judgments on a regular basis, but TransUnion has declined to require its vendors to obtain that information because it does not want to pay the additional costs necessary to obtain updated and accurate information regarding civil court judgments,” according to the plaintiff’s complaint.
Potential members of the class include New York residents who had a judgment vacated against them that was not updated on their credit reports. That likely group will be in the “thousands,” according to the complaint.
