| Volume 143 Number 84 |
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The People’s Lawyer’s Tip of the Day
Whether you’re getting ready to deal with the aftermath of Gulf Coast storms, Laura and Marco, dealing with the ravages of wildfires out West, reeling from the derecho that struck the Midwest, or facing another natural disaster, handling the aftermath is never easy. But when scammers target people just trying to recover, it can be even worse. Here are some tips to help you avoid common post-disaster scams. Click here for more.
Consumer confidence drops sharply in August
Consumers’ attitudes about the economy took a sharp turn this month on the heels of declining confidence recorded in July.
The Conference Board reports that its Consumer Confidence Index for August fell to 84.8 from 91.7 in July. Consumers appear to be most concerned about current conditions, with the Present Situation Index falling nearly 11 points to 84.2.
The Expectations Index -- based on consumers' short-term outlook for income, business, and labor market conditions -- also fell, but not by much; it dropped from 88.9 in July to 85.2 this month. Click here for more.
Your Money
If you received a refund check from the IRS for filing your 2019 federal income tax returns, and you also received a stimulus check earlier this year, you may soon be three for three. That is, you may soon get the interest you are owed for receiving your federal tax refund later than usual. So if your interest on this interest is piqued, here are some answers to questions about when and how this money may arrive. Click here for more.
For the Lawyers
Consumer Reporting Agency must reinvestigate disputed inquiries. The Eastern District of Pennsylvania provided some helpful clarifications regarding the reinvestigation obligations of a consumer reporting agency (“CRA”) under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”). Section 611(a) of the FCRA requires a CRA to conduct a reasonable reinvestigation of any item of information in a consumer’s file if the consumer alleges the item to be inaccurate. A home security company called Safe Home pulled a credit report on the plaintiff. Not only did he not authorize Safe Home to do so, he explicitly instructed them not to. The plaintiff noticed the inquiry on this credit report and disputed the inquiry with TransUnion (“TU”), the CRA that had prepared the credit report. When plaintiff called TU to dispute, they told him they could not remove the inquiry and to call Safe Home. While TU conceded that the plaintiff had lodged the dispute and that it conducted no reinvestigation, TU asserted several arguments as to why it was not obligated to do so. TU was not obligated to reinvestigate because plaintiff’s file was accurate. The court found that while the inquiry in this case was technically accurate, it was misleading and, therefore, inaccurate: TU did not have to reinvestigate because plaintiff did not preliminarily “show” an inaccuracy. As long as the accuracy of some piece of information in the consumer’s file is disputed directly with a CRA, a consumer has fulfilled his duty to trigger the CRA’s reasonable reinvestigation obligation; and TU’s duty to reinvestigate is limited to information provided by furnishers. Section 611 explicitly grants consumers the right to dispute the “completeness or accuracy of any item of information contained in a consumer’s file,” subject to two exceptions not relevant in this case. Having found plaintiff satisfied the requirements for class certification and TU’s arguments to be lacking, the court granted class certification. Norman v. Trans Union, Inc., No. 18-5225, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 146642 (E.D. Pa. Aug. 14, 2020). Click here for more.