Washington, D.C., has joined 11 states, New York City and Chicago in an effort to prevent employers from conducting credit history screens for job applicants. The D.C. Council Judiciary Committee unanimously passed The Fair Credit in Employment Amendment Act, which…
Posts by Category: Fair Credit Reporting Act
District Court Wrestles with Interpretation of Webpage in Background Check Disclosure Lawsuit
The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires that employers provide prospective applicants with a disclosure before obtaining a pre-employment background check from a consumer reporting agency. This disclosure must be in a single document that consists “solely of the…
Rite Aid Seeks Dismissal of Job Applicant Background Check Class Action
Last month, Rite Aid filed a motion to dismiss a proposed Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) class-action in the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The complaint states that the business violated the FCRA by failing to allow job applicants to…
Receipt of Improper Background Check Disclosure is Sufficient to Confer Standing Under Spokeo
The District Court for the Central District of California found in favor of consumer standing in the case of Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins. A similar case, Rodriquez v. El Toro Investors Ltd., is focused on an alleged violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. In this case,…
Man Wins 3.6 Million After Background Check Goofs
A $3.6 million verdict was won by a Florida man who was falsely identified twice by First Advantage Background Services as a man with the same birthdate, similar name and a violent criminal history. Richard Williams argued that when the company misidentified him as…
McDonald’s Workers Near Ok On Credit Checks Deal
A California federal judge on Monday said he would approve a McDonald’s operator’s $950,000 deal to end claims that it violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act by running credit checks on over 2,500 job applicants without making the disclosures required by…
NJ Bank Sued by Job Applicants Over Credit Reports
New Jersey’s Valley National Bank is facing a putative class action in federal court after violating the federal fair credit reporting law when the company obtained consumer reports on job applicants without first informing the candidates. The suits seek damages…
Illinois Appellate Court Reminds Employers of Restrictions on Credit Checks
Neiman Marcus was found guilty of violating the Illinois Employee Credit Privacy Act when a conditional offer of employment for an entry level sales associate was rescinded after the store ran a credit check that revealed judgments against her. The store argued for…
Courts Split on Standing Issues in FCRA Suits After Spokeo
On October 5, 2016, two district courts came to opposite conclusions on whether putative class action plaintiffs had standing to bring claims based on prospective employers’ failure to comply with Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) disclosure requirements. In Moody v….
Spokeo Nixes State Farm Credit Report Suit
A California federal judge recently dismissed a class action in which Bobby Dutta alleged State Farm did not provide him an opportunity to dispute findings on his credit report before denying him employment as an agent. The plaintiff could not prove that any harm had…



