Equifax Ordered by Jury to Pay $18.6 Million After Failing to Fix Oregon Woman’s Credit Report

On July 26, 2013, a jury in Oregon returned a verdict on behalf of an Oregon woman, Julie Miller, against Equifax Information Services. The jury awarded Ms. Miller $180,000 in compensatory damages and $18.4 million in punitive damages. See jury verdict here. The complaint filed by Ms. Miller alleged that she had contacted Equifax eight times between 2009 and 2011 in an effort to correct inaccuracies, including erroneous accounts and collection attempts as well as a wrong social security number and birth date. The complaint alleges that Equifax failed to correct the mistakes. See copy of complaint here.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is the federal law that pertains to everything that can and cannot be on a credit report and this is the law that controls how someone can fix their credit report. If someone wants to dispute incorrect or erroneous information on their credit report, there is a very specific way in which to do that. Finally, it is very important to get your credit reports in writing only through www.annualcreditreport.com  Please see my blog post dated December 24, 2012 which describes in detail exactly how and why a person who wants to dispute erroneous information on their credit reports must get their credit reports in writing only and only from www.annualcreditreport.com by submitting the written form(pdf) to the Atlanta address on the form.

If you have a problem with your credit reports and dispute erroneous information on them, our attorneys have experience in handling these matters. Please feel free to contact the office nearest to you to set up a free consultation with one of our licensed attorneys in order to review your situation.