Hello Readers,
It’s August 5, 2011. I was supposed to be leaving for a backpacking trip in the Sierras today, but I had to postpone this until Monday. Good day to write a short blog article.
We are often approached for legal representation by people with imperfect credit: coming out of bankruptcies, foreclosures, repossessions, charge-offs, late-pays, etc. They frequently ask whether they can maintain a wrongful credit damage lawsuit even if the accurate parts of their credit report include negative entries.
The answer is yes, positively!
A person with imperfect credit may have to adjust their expectations downward in a credit damages lawsuit, because false information generally (but not always) does proportionally less damage if surrounded by accurate negative credit entries as opposed to accurate positive credit entries. However, both state and federal law permit consumers to pursue their rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, as well as the California version, the California Consumer Credit Reporting Agencies Act, even if their credit is not perfect. Under both laws, a prevailing plaintiff is entitled to an award of damages, possible punitive damages and their attorney’s fees and costs. As mentioned in other blog posts, my office usually takes these cases on a contingency or on a semi-contingency basis.
So, even if your credit is far from perfect, if you have FALSE or INACCURATE information on your credit report and you cannot get it removed in spite of your best efforts, you do have rights under both federal and state law, which may include compensation in your pocket.
Thanks for reading and I hope these “dog days of summer” (so named for the Dog Star, as I learned recently) are treating you well.
Bob Brennan