Skip to Content (Press Enter)

Skip to Nav (Press Enter)

15 U.S.C. § 1681s-2(b)

Subscribe to Consumer Finance

Thank you for your desire to subscribe to Severson & Werson’s Consumer Finance Weblog. In order to subscribe, you must provide a valid name and e-mail address. This too will be retained on our server. When you push the “subscribe button”, we will send an electronic mail to the address that you provided asking you to confirm your subscription to our Weblog. By pushing the “subscribe button”, you represent and warrant that you are over the age of 18 years old, are the owner/authorized user of that e-mail address, and are entitled to receive e-mails at that address. Our weblog will retain your name and e-mail address on its server, or the server of its web host. However, we won’t share any of this information with anyone except the Firm’s employees and contractors, except under certain extraordinary circumstances described on our Privacy Policy and (About The Consumer Finance Blog/About the Appellate Tracker Weblog) Page. NOTICE AND AGREEMENT REGARDING E-MAILS AND CALLS/TEXT MESSAGES TO LAND-LINE AND WIRELESS TELEPHONES: By providing your contact information and confirming your subscription in response to the initial e-mail that we send you, you agree to receive e-mail messages from Severson & Werson from time-to-time and understand and agree that such messages are or may be sent by means of automated dialing technology. If you have your email forwarded to other electronic media, including text messages and cellular telephone by way of VoIP, internet, social media, or otherwise, you agree to receive my messages in that way. This may result in charges to you. Your agreement and consent also extend to any other agents, affiliates, or entities to whom our communications are forwarded. You agree that you will notify Severson & Werson in writing if you revoke this agreement and that your revocation will not be effective until you notify Severson & Werson in writing. You understand and agree that you will afford Severson & Werson a reasonable time to unsubscribe you from the website, that the ability to do so depends on Severson & Werson’s press of business and access to the weblog, and that you may still receive one or more emails or communications from weblog until we are able to unsubscribe you.

In Ingram v. Experian Info. Sols., Inc., No. 21-2430, 2023 WL 6386517, at *1 (3d Cir. Oct. 2, 2023), the Court of Appeals held that furnishers are permitted to find that a direct dispute submitted by a consumer is frivolous, and consumer reporting agencies may find that an indirect dispute submitted by a consumer is frivolous, but the FCRA provides… Read More

The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued the Sessa decision last week: Sessa v. TRANS UNION, LLC, Court of Appeals, 2nd Circuit 2023.   This line of cases, following the 9th Circuit’s Gross decision, continues to wrestle with the distinction between a legal and factual dispute under the FCRA, which is also complicated by evolving standards applicable to furnishers… Read More

In Roberts v. Carter-Young, Inc., 2023 WL 4366059 (N.D. N.C. 2023), Magistrate Auld dismissed an FCRA claim grounded in a legal dispute surrounding the product that was financed. Critically, “[a] legal dispute on the underlying debt is a collateral attack on the credit report and is insufficient to sustain a FCRA claim.” Wilson v. Chrysler Cap., No. 19-CV-975, 2019 WL… Read More

In ALVIN EILAND, Plaintiff, v. WESTLAKE SERVICES, LLC, Defendant., No. CV H-23-1272, 2023 WL 4139014, at *2–3 (S.D. Tex. June 22, 2023), Judge Lake disagreed with an automobile finance company furnisher's arguments with respect to when an FCRA claim against a  furnisher accrues for statute of limitations purposes. Westlake argues that Plaintiff's claims are barred by the two-year statute of… Read More

In Shelton v. Americredit Fin. Servs., Inc., No. 23-10543, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 58218, at *4-8 (E.D. Mich. Apr. 3, 2023), Judge Michelson dismissed an FCRA claim by an in pro per Plaintiff premised on the basis that an automobile finance company did not credit as a "payment" sums that it received for a repossessed vehicle's sale. Start with the… Read More

In Moore v. Mandarich Law Grp., LLP, No. 1:21-cv-20481-KMM, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20201, at *4-9 (S.D. Fla. Feb. 7, 2023), Judge Moore dismissed an FDCPA/FCRA class action grounded on a debt collection firm's filing a pleading that included Plaintiff's unredacted credit score.  Judge Moore found no FCRA violation. Courts have routinely held that debt collectors may obtain and use a… Read More

In Miller v. Westlake Servs. LLC, No. 8:21-cv-00692-JLS-KES, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 197076, at *21-30 (C.D. Cal. Oct. 28, 2022), Judge Staton granted partial summary judgment to an FCRA Plaintiff who claimed that she was a victim of identity theft. First, the Court declines Plaintiff's invitation to rule that "solely engaging in data conformity" renders a furnisher's investigation per se… Read More

In Towle v. TD Bank USA, N.A., No. 22-CV-0624 (PJS/TNL), 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 146898, at *1-3 (D. Minn. Aug. 17, 2022), Judge Schiltz dismissed a credit reporting claim premised on the grounds that reporting charged off debt is inaccurate because, allegedly, it's not owing anymore.  Judge Schiltz found the allegation to be frivolous. Towle filed his original complaint on… Read More

In Richmond v. Medicredit, Inc., No. 5:21-CV-00068-KDB-DSC, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 130092, at *8 (W.D.N.C. July 22, 2022), Judge Bell denied an FDCPA defendant's summary judgment motion. The Court finds that there is a genuine issue of material fact as to whether Medicredit reported Richmond's debts as disputed to the credit reporting agencies ("CRAs"). The FDCPA protects consumers from certain… Read More

In Riser v. Cent. Portfolio Control, Inc., 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 109545, Case No. 3:21-cv-05238-LK (W.D. Wash. June 21, 2022), Judge King dismissed an FCRA claim against a consumer reporting agency over the propriety of reporting a medical debt which the Plaintiff claimed that she did not owe because she was covered by Washington's Medicaid plan. Relying on the Ninth… Read More

In George v. Summit Credit Union, No. 21-CV-259-JPS, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 112739, at *14-21 (E.D. Wis. June 27, 2022), Judge Stadtmueller granted partial summary judgment to an FCRA Plaintiff against a furnisher, leaving for further litigation only the issue of recoverable damages. The FCRA provides that a furnisher (such as Summit) can be held liable to a consumer for… Read More

We previously reported on this case here:  https://www.severson.com/consumer-finance/district-court-cal-finds-no-fdcpa-claim-based-on-reporting-account-as-disputed-when-debtor-did-not-dispute-the-debt/ Now, again, in Samano v. LVNV Funding, LLC, No. 1:21-cv-01692-SKO, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 114028, at *4-8 (E.D. Cal. June 27, 2022), Magistrate Oberta again granted a Motion to Dismiss, but again gave leave to amend, on whether credit reporting constituted debt collection activity. The purposes of the FDCPA are "to eliminate… Read More

The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has long held that as part of their investigation obligations under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, consumer reporting agencies (“CRAs”) are not required to assess the merits of a legal defense to a payment obligation being reported on a consumer credit report. Carvalho v. Equifax Info. Servs., LLC, 629 F.3d 876, 891… Read More

In a strange fact pattern, in Samano v. LVNV Funding, LLC, No. 1:21-cv-01692-SKO, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 72102, at *11-14 (E.D. Cal. Apr. 18, 2022), Magistrate Judge Oberto dismissed FDCPA claims derived from Plaintiff's complaint that the debt collector reported the Account as disputed when the Plaintiff previously had written to the debt collector to advise that he did not… Read More

In Persinger v. Sw. Credit Sys., L.P., No. 21-1037, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 37986, at *16-17 (7th Cir. Dec. 22, 2021), the Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit affirmed dismissal of an FCRA "Permissible Purpose" case arising out of a post-discharge credit pull.  The facts were as follows: Persinger and her husband jointly filed for bankruptcy in 2017. Their… Read More

In Canady v. Kaps & Co. (USA) Ltd. Liab. Co., No. 4:20-CV-1253-CLM, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 148878, at *7-9 (N.D. Ala. Aug. 9, 2021), Judge Maze found that an FDCPA Plaintiff stated a 1692e(8) claim. Kaps also argues that Canady's complaint fails to state a claim under § 1692e(8) because Canady alleges that she disputed the debt only after Kaps… Read More

In  Bruce v. Am. Honda Fin. Corp., No. 3:20-cv-00128-ECM, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 107187, at *9 (M.D. Ala. June 8, 2021), Judge Marks ruled against a FCRA Plaintiff on the claim that identification of the amount monthly payment on a closed, zero-balanced account is "inaccurate" and suggests to users that the account is open. Now pending before the Court is… Read More

In Carrasco v. M & T Bank, No. SAG-21-0532, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 80487, at *8 (D. Md. Apr. 27, 2021), Judge Gallagher allowed an FCRA claim past the pleadings stage where the Plaintiff argued that the creditor had not reported the Account as disputed. Count One of Plaintiff's Complaint fairly alleges that M&T violated the FCRA by failing to inform the… Read More

1 2 3 9