The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) has historically been used to correct and sue for damages for false credit reporting and false background check reporting. The most common things that it is used to correct and get damages for include identity theft (where you did not open the account), mixed credit files (where the credit bureaus have a hard time telling you apart from someone else), false background checks (where the background check says you were convicted of a crime that you were not, or in some cases, not even charged), false status (where they show that you were late when you were not).
However, there has been a special class of creditor who has been immune from lawsuits in many parts of the country.
The government. This is called “sovereign immunity” which means, in short, you can only sue the government, if they allow it. In Robinson v. US Dept of Education, in 2019, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals (which covers Virginia, among other places), ruled that you could not sue the US Dept of Education because they were immune.
Today, the Supreme Court held in another case, not involving the Dept of Education, but the Dept of Agriculture, the court held that the FCRA applies to governmental agencies, and that sovereign immunity is waived. The opinion will be linked here.
This is important, because there are people with false credit reporting by US Dept of Education, and other student loan agencies. Until now, it has not been possible to get full relief for those people.
Now, it is possible to pursue all claims for relief in false credit reporting against all defendants, as long as all the procedural aspects have been met.
If you have been impacted by false credit or background information, contact us.