For the consumer reporting system to work properly, it’s important that reporting agencies be held to standards of accuracy. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) sets out rules for reports and their use. However, the complaint for this class action alleges that TransUnion, LLC reported that certain consumers owed debts that had been forgiven in a class action.
The class for this action is all natural persons in the US
- Who were class members in Hayes v. Delbert Servs. Corp.,3:14-cv-258 (E.D. Va.) or any other lawsuit or attorney general action in which their Cashcall debt was forgiven; and
- Between October 19, 2016 and October 19, 2018,
- TransUnion provided a report on the person to a third party,
- Which contained the information that the person had a debt to Western Sky or CashCall with an outstanding balance.
At the root of the allegations in this complaint is a “payday” lender, Western Sky Financial, LLC. During the year 2013, plaintiffs Marsha Heath, Scott Rogers, Robert Kemery, and Sean Lawrence each took out a loan from Western Sky. In each case, the loans were then transferred to WS Funding, LLC, which then named its parent company, CashCall, Inc. as the servicing agent.
However, the complaint claims that the loan rates were higher than permitted by law and that the loans were therefore void. The CashCall loans and the practices of the lenders were challenged in the class action Hayes v. Delbert Servs. Corp.,811 F.3d 666, 669 (4th Cir. 2016).
According to the complaint, no one “seriously dispute that [the CashCall] payday loans violated a host of state and federal lending laws.” But the defendants tried to claim that the contracts contained arbitration clauses that prevented them from being taken to court.
Eventually, the courts found that the arbitration clauses were an attempt to claim that Western Sky could engage in lending without obeying federal law. In the final settlement, the complaint says, “the defendants agreed to pay monetary consideration to the settlement class and to adjust to zero all the outstanding debts that were in the defendants’ possession.”
All four of the plaintiffs in this case were members of that settlement class and had their debts forgiven in that settlement.
According to the complaint, other cases against entities associated with CashCall have been filed around the country, with CashCall being required to pay monetary relief and sometimes penalties and fees.
Even so, the complaint alleges that debtor collector Diaz & Associates has reported the debts to TransUnion, with the original creditor named as either Western Sky or CashCall.
The complaint says that TransUnion should have had procedures to identify and correct the false information, but that it waited for consumers to dispute them before removing them. The complaint claims that it has included them in consumer reports it issued about the plaintiffs.
Article Type: LawsuitTopic: Consumer
Most Recent Case Event
TransUnion Reporting of Forgiven Debts FCRA Complaint
October 19, 2018
For the consumer reporting system to work properly, it’s important that reporting agencies be held to standards of accuracy. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) sets out rules for reports and their use. However, the complaint for this class action alleges that TransUnion, LLC reported that certain consumers owed debts that had been forgiven in a class action.
trans_union_fcra_complaint_1.pdfCase Event History
TransUnion Reporting of Forgiven Debts FCRA Complaint
October 19, 2018
For the consumer reporting system to work properly, it’s important that reporting agencies be held to standards of accuracy. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) sets out rules for reports and their use. However, the complaint for this class action alleges that TransUnion, LLC reported that certain consumers owed debts that had been forgiven in a class action.
trans_union_fcra_complaint_1.pdf