A recent U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decision in Luna v. Hansen & Adkins Auto Transport, Inc., No. 18-55804 (April 24, 2020), limited a claimant’s attempt to stretch the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) beyond its plain language. The putative class action was filed by the plaintiff against the employer, alleging that “Hansen & Adkin’s hiring process violated [the] FCRA’s disclosure and authorization requirements.” First, the former employee argued that the company violated the FCRA’s standalone requirement by presenting the disclosure along with other application materials. The court affirmed that an employer does not violate the FCRA’s standalone requirement by presenting the disclosure along with other application materials. The court also dismissed the plaintiff’s argument that the business violated the FCRA by failing to put the authorization in a clear and conspicuous standalone document, concluding that Hansen & Adkin’s disclosure was “both [clear and conspicuous], and applicants … can be expected to notice a bolded, underlined, capital-lettered heading.”
