Skip to Content (Press Enter)

Skip to Nav (Press Enter)

Effective, Experienced, Exceptional.

Firm Profile

Identity Theft

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.

District Court (Ill.) Orders Discovery and Trial (Under the FAA) on Arbitrability of Identity Theft Case

by Scott J. Hyman |

In Hoganberry v. Experian, et. al., No. 23 C 3690, 2023 WL 8113393, at *3–5 (N.D. Ill. Nov. 22, 2023), Judge Pallmeyer ordered a trial under the FAA of arbitrability of an identity theft matter based on the factual conflict between the moving party's authentication of the arbitration clause and the consumer's argument that he never signed/received it because the… Read More

District Court (Cal.) Rules that Furnisher’s Reinvestigation of Identity Theft Dispute Violated FCRA and CCRAA

by Scott J. Hyman |

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

District Court (Cal.) Denies MSJ to Furnisher in ID Theft Case Due to Question of Fact

by Scott J. Hyman |

In Pongsai v. Am. Express Co., No. SA CV 19-1628-DOC (JDEx), 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 198104 (C.D. Cal. Oct. 23, 2020), Judge Carter denied MSJ to American Express due to a question of fact. Defendant argues that "only notice from a [consumer reporting agency] can trigger a furnisher's duty to investigation" under the FCRA. Defendant's Motion at 12. It contends… Read More

District Court (N.Y.) Says Just Because ID Thief Applied for Consumer Credit in the Name of the Plaintiff Does Not Mean that Potential Creditor Did Not Have an Impermissible Purpose to Obtain Consumer Report in Connection with the Application

by Scott J. Hyman |

In Randall v. Dish Network, LLC, 2018 WL 3235543, at *3 (E.D.N.Y., 2018), Judge Spatt dismissed an FCRA-permissible purpose case premised on identity theft. The Plaintiff has not successfully alleged that Dish negligently violated § 1681q by allowing an identity thief to open an account and perform a consumer credit check on the Plaintiff’s account. “A person cannot obtain information… Read More