On February 4, the Oakland City Council in California forbade the use of criminal background checks in most housing applications. The stated purpose of the law, the Fair Chance Housing Ordinance, is to allow formerly incarcerated individuals an increased opportunity to compete for rental housing, reintegrate into their communities, and avoid homelessness.
The property
On January 29, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Comprehensive Credit Act (“the Act”). Packaging several Democrat-sponsored bills together, the Act garnered the support of all but two of the present House Democrats. If enacted into law, the Act would significantly change the information that credit reports can contain, expand the processes available
Wire fraud cases, arising from what the Federal Bureau of Investigation calls “business email compromise,” are on the rise. In 2018, the FBI reported that business email compromise and other internet-enabled theft, fraud, and exploitation resulted in $2.7 billion of financial loss. See FBI – IC3 Annual Report Released. Surprisingly, even sophisticated parties and
Shortly before the end of the year, two bills, introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives earlier in 2019, that seek to amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”) were amended and reported out by the House Committee on Financial Services for consideration by the full House.
H.R. 3622, titled “Restoring Unfairly Impaired Credit
Trina Davis brought both individual and putative class claims against Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, Inc. (herein “Einstein”), the parent company of popular bagel chain Noah’s Bagels, and Caribou Coffee Company, Inc. She alleged the companies violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act and related California statutes, arguing the consumer report disclosure form she signed to complete
On November 12, the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida issued an order granting final approval to a class action settlement in Sanders et al. v. Global Radar Acquisition LLC d/b/a Global HR Research. This settlement resolves the lawsuit filed by Shawana Sanders and Keynatta Williams alleging that Global HR
A pro se plaintiff’s lawsuit brought pursuant to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act was dismissed by the District of New Jersey for lack of standing in Kraft v. Phelan Hallinan Diamond & Jones, P.C., U.S. Dist. LEXIS 126323 (D. N.J. July 30, 2019). Plaintiff Warren R. Kraft inherited real estate from his deceased
On August 1, a three-judge panel of the New Jersey Appellate Division affirmed a $40 million jury award to investment firm NuWave Investment Corporation for reputation damage by an allegedly inaccurate and defamatory background report issued by First Advantage Litigation Consulting LLC. Court records indicated that the allegedly offending information in the report issued by
On August 9, a court in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia joined several other district courts in finding consumer reports obtained for independent contractors do not trigger the protections applicable for consumer reports obtained for “employment purposes” under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Although the issue remains unsettled, this
On June 24, the Consumer Education Foundation (“CEF”), a California-based nonprofit consumer organization, filed a petition with the Federal Trade Commission requesting that it investigate the use of so-called “Secret Surveillance Scores” in the consumer market. The complaint alleges that consumer data points are covertly tracked and amassed by private firms to create a single
