Showing Posts In "FCRA Class Action Lawsuits" Category

FCRA Lawsuit Claims Retailer Failed to Disclose Background Check Results

Lowe’s Companies, Inc., is facing a proposed class-action lawsuit claiming violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) that prohibits employers from taking adverse action against job applicants based on their background check report without first giving them a copy of the report. Specifically, Hale v. Lowe’s Companies, Inc., claims that the defendant’s use of […]

The Rest of the Story (for Now): Employer Prevails in FCRA Class Action Alleging “Stand-Alone” Disclosure Violation

Class action lawsuits against employers under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) continue to spike. In the March 2020 case of Walker v. Fred Moyer, Inc. the plaintiff asserted that the defendant acted willfully when it provided him with a disclosure that included alleged extraneous information. After the trial court granted the defendant’s motion to […]

California Federal Court Approves FCRA Class Action Settlement

A $1.375 million settlement has been reached in California between a certified class of former employee plaintiffs and an employer defendant, who was alleged to have misused Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) consent forms to improperly run background checks, along with a series of wage and hour violations under the state’s law. The FCRA settlement […]

WebRecon Stats for Oct 2020 & Year-End Projections…

In October, FCRA suits were up +11.4 percent and a similar pattern is in place YTD.

Putative class actions represented 3.7% of FCRA lawsuits filed last month.

About 35% of all plaintiffs who filed suit last month had filed at least once before.
Now, on the 2020 projections…

Based on the first ten months of the year, plus […]

How Much is a FCRA Violation Going to Cost You? Possibly $29 a Head

The plaintiff in Esomonu v. Omnicare, Inc. filed a class-action lawsuit of 45,000 members in May 2015, alleging that the employer violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) by 1. Embedding extraneous information in the FCRA disclosures, 2. Failing to alert her that she could request a summary of her rights under FCRA and 3. […]

What’s Happening in FCRA Class Actions

In 2019 alone, 4,937 Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) cases were filed, presenting a growing body of case law that offers significant guidance for best practices. A few highlights include: rethinking the inclusion of state law disclosures embedded within the FCRA disclosure document (recently certified for class-action status in the Northern District of California); additional […]

9th Circuit Court Rules FCRA Disclosure Can Be Provided with Other Employment Materials

Fair Credit Reporting Act Affirming the district court’s summary judgment in favor of the defendant, the panel held that an employer does not violate the Fair Credit Reporting Act by providing an FCRA disclosure simultaneously with other employment materials, and by failing to place an FCRA authorization on a standalone document. The panel held that […]

Court Adopts “Concise Explanation” Standard for FCRA Disclosure Forms

The Ninth Circuit ruled that beyond a plain statement disclosing “that a consumer report may be obtained for employment purposes,” some concise explanation of what that phrase means may be included as part of the “disclosure” required by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), 15 U.S.C. 1681b(b)(2)(A)(i). The right provided by the FCRA to dispute […]

Ninth Circuit Reinforces Prohibition Against “Extraneous” Information in Background Check Disclosures

In March, the Ninth Circuit issued its third opinion on the question of when an employer’s background check disclosure satisfies the so-called “standalone” disclosure requirement in the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), specifically providing practical guidance for drafting such disclosures. Employers may order background reports for employment purposes but must first disclose their intention to […]

9th Circuit Holds All Members of Certified Class Must Have Article III Standing to Recover Monetary Damages

The 9th Circuit recently held that individual class members must satisfy Article III’s standing requirements in order to recover individual monetary damages. Class members who are a part of Ramirez v. TransUnion LLC who experienced no injury-in-fact traceable to the alleged statutory violation or challenged conduct must be excluded from any class damages award. The […]