Over the past decade the volume of Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) lawsuits has increased year over year. FCRA lawsuits almost always involve a consumer Plaintiff suing a credit industry player, with one or more of the credit reporting agencies thrown in as co-defendants. The credit industry player or players are also almost always banks, credit card issuers, credit reporting agencies, and debt collectors. And in many of those FCRA lawsuits the Plaintiff, Defendant or both engage the services of an FCRA expert witness.

FCRA lawsuits, at least the ones with which I’ve been involved, generally include an allegation of incorrect credit reporting, credit report and credit score damages, impermissible access of credit reports, or the failure to maintain reasonable procedures to ensure the maximum possible accuracy of credit reports. It’s not uncommon for Plaintiff’s FCRA experts to opine that a “furnisher” of information to a credit bureau 1) reported incorrect information and 2) failed to perform a reasonable investigation when the item was disputed and 3) because of the failure to perform a reasonable investigation the Plaintiff was damaged.