U.S. PIRG Consumer Blog: Credit bureau Experian slapped hard by Ninth Circuit

Yesterday the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled strongly for a consumer, Jason Dennis, against the credit bureau Experian for its negligence. The court said that if Experian "traffics in the reputations of ordinary people" it had a responsibility to do a better job than it does. Essentially, in its strong ruling, the court placed Experian's corporate head on a medieval pike in front of the courthouse and we can only hope that the other credit bureaus walk by and see it.

It's a very concise and important appellate holding that other judges should read. The case concerned Experian's false reporting that Dennis had a judgment against him (that's a very big black mark in your credit history) after it had been told that it was wrong. The decision is available at Jason Dennis vs. BEH-1 and Experian.

Ordinarily we would remand Dennis's claim for trial so that a jury could determine whether Experian's failure to reinvestigate was negligent. Here, however, a remand would be pointless. Even accepting as true everything Experian has claimed, no rational jury could find that the company wasn't negligent.[...]This case illustrates how important it is for Experian, a company that traffics in the reputations of ordinary people, to train its employees to understand the legal significance of the documents they rely on.

Here's the LA Times story Experian 'negligent,' judges say (free subs. may be req'd.) by Molly Selvin.