Woman Wins $2.7 Mill Verdict Against Equifax

According to a recent UPI press release:

"The Florida Circuit Court jury in Orlando said the Atlanta company must pay medical-transcription worker Angela Williams $219,000 in actual damages and $2.7 million in punitive damages for negligent violation of federal credit-reporting laws..."

Apparently, the jury agreed with the plantiff's argument that Equifax continually and repeatedly confused another person's credit information into Williams' credit report:

"At trial, her attorneys showed how Equifax repeatedly confused Williams with someone who had a similar name but whose credit file was rife with bad debt, the newspaper said. Williams disputed the errors numerous times, but Equifax kept passing along the false information, ruining her credit, she testified. After eight years of trying to resolve the issue, she sued the company in 2003."

UPI reported that this is the largest punitive-damages award ever against Equifax. This court verdict is a sad reminder that it is the individual consumer's responsibility to monitor the accuracy of their credit reports at the three national credit bureaus; and to notify the credit bureaus of any errors. Once notified, it is the credit bureaus' responsibility to fix the credit report.

To learn more, read the Orlando Sentinel article or the Credit Bureaus posts.

Comments

[Lori Magno]

About time someone nailed the credit reporting agencies for "doing what they want." I hope the verdict stands!