Damages under the Fair Credit Reporting Act include economic damages as well as damages for humiliation and mental distress
Robinson v. Equifax Info. Servs., LLC, 560 F.3d 235 (4th Cir. 2009) Ms. Robinson had her identity stolen and the thief opened up fraudulent accounts in her name and under Ms. Robinson’s social security number. Shortly after discovering that she had been a victim, Ms. Robinson filed a police report, called the Federal Trade Commission hotline and opened a case, and spent the next five months trying to correct the mistakes on her credit report. Equifax mistakenly placed Robinson’s address and social security number on three credit files established by the identify thief, each of which contained derogatory credit accounts. Consequently, Equifax sent various creditors requesting Ms. Robinson’s credit report her actual credit file along with one of the identity thief’s files. Because of these errors, Mrs. Robinson’s credit problems persisted and she had difficulties obtaining any type of credit for three years. During this time period, each time Equifax…Read More
