FCRA - The Class Action Blog by Carr Maloney PC

The Supreme Court to Determine Whether Class Members Must Suffer Actual Harm

On December 16, 2020, the Supreme Court granted cert. to hear TransUnion v. Ramirez, a Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”) class action suit that presents the question as to “whether either Article III (of the Constitution) or Rule 23 (of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure) permits a damages class action where the vast majority of the class suffered no actual injury, let alone an injury anything like what the class representative suffered.”

In Ramirez, Ramirez was refused the purchase of a car by a dealership when his credit report incorrectly indicated that his name appeared on […]

By Matthew D. Berkowitz and Brian O’Shea|2020-12-17T16:03:35-05:00December 17th, 2020|Practice Areas: Class Action|Topics: Article III, Fair Credit Reporting Act, FCRA, Rule 23|

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Federal Court Decertifies FCRA Class Action for Lack of Standing Under Spokeo

On October 18, 2019, a federal judge in the United States District Court for the Central District of California decertified a class of approximately 6.5 million Wal-Mart job applicants, ruling that the plaintiffs failed to satisfy Article III standing requirements under Spokeo v. Robins. The Supreme Court in Spokeo reiterated that a statutory violation by itself and without a concrete injury is insufficient to confer Article III standing.

In Pitre v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., a class of plaintiffs alleged that Wal-Mart violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act by failing to provide job applicants with required and sufficient […]

By Matthew D. Berkowitz|2019-11-26T13:20:52-05:00October 22nd, 2019|Practice Areas: General|Topics: Class Certification, FCRA|

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Prospective Employees Who Were Not Given a Separate Disclosure of a Pre-Employment Background Checks Have Standing to Bring Suits for Technical Violations of the FCRA

Despite the Supreme Court’s holding in Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins, 136 S. Ct. 1540 (2016), as revised (May 24, 2016), a federal court recently allowed a class action lawsuit to proceed against Amazon, as a prospective employer, for a technical violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”) and without any “actual harm.”

In Hargrett v. Amazon.com DEDC LLC, 235 F. Supp. 3d 1320 (M.D. Fla. 2017), job applicants filed a class action lawsuit against Amazon, alleging a statutory violation of § 1681b(b)(2)(A) of FCRA in connection with preemployment background checks. Section 1681b(b)(2)(A)(I)-(ii) requires that before conducting a […]

By Matthew D. Berkowitz|2019-11-26T13:11:26-05:00February 15th, 2018|Practice Areas: Labor & Employment|Topics: FCRA, Standing|

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