The roller coaster of employer liability under the background check provisions of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) recently took an upswing with the California Court of Appeals’ decision in Culberson v. Walt Disney Parks & Resorts. The Culberson court considered two class claims, both of which are now-familiar spindles ready to prick the
Hyper-Technical Interpretation: 9th Circuit Increases FCRA Reach
By Heidi Siegmund, Bryan A. Fratkin, Joel Allen, Sabrina A. Beldner, Christopher M. Michalik, Bruce M. Steen & McGuireWoods LLP on
Posted in Strategy
On Jan. 29, 2019, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a strikingly broad decision, raised the bar for employers’ compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). In Gilberg v California Check Cashing Stores LLC, the court held that an employer violates the FCRA by including, in a pre-background check notice form,
…
Recap of the 30th National Forum on Consumer Finance Class Actions and Government Enforcement
By The Editors on
Posted in Presentations
LA-based commercial litigator Arsen Kourinian has provided us with some timely notes from last week’s consumer finance litigation conference in Chicago:
On July 16 and 17, 2018, the American Conference Institute (ACI) hosted its 30th National Forum on Consumer Finance Class Actions and Government Enforcement in Chicago. The 2018 conference was well attended by…
Trading Limited Releases for Reversion Clauses – In re Trans Union Corp Priv Litig
By The Editors on
Posted in Settlement
With one or two significant exceptions, I usually write about settlement tactics that don’t work. I do that for two reasons: (1) settlement tactics that work often lead to perfunctory opinions that do not discuss the tactics themselves, and (2) settlement is one of those areas where it’s better to know what to avoid.…
When Incentive Awards Attack – Radcliffe v. Experian Info Solutions Inc.
By The Editors on
Posted in Settlement
Going through bankruptcy is traumatic enough; doing so and still having your credit report still list your discharged debts as "delinquent" is enough to drive some people to litigation. And that’s how several credit agencies found themselves on the receiving end of a series of Fair Credit Reporting Act class actions.
In this case, the…
Professional Plaintiffs in Class Actions
By The Editors on
Posted in Certification
Two cases in the past few years involved a similar issue, but opposite outcomes. In the first, Murray v. GMAC Corp., the defendant argued that a family that had brought fifty Fair Credit Reporting Act lawsuits were "professional plaintiffs," and therefore inadequate to represent a class. The Seventh Circuit, in an opinion by…
The Strategic Dilemma of Bad Settlements – Mirfasihi v Fleet Mortgage
By The Editors on
Posted in Settlement
When a defendant is faced with a class action complaint, sometimes the best strategy appears to be to settle quickly, before having to engage in costly litigation or burdensome discovery. But, as readers of this blog know, that strategy is not always as straightforward as it first seems. In today’s case, we have another…