The Fair Credit Reporting Act provides consumers with a right to dispute inaccurate information on their credit reports from Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. If you find incorrect information on your credit reports, you have the right to send a dispute letter to those credit reporting agencies in order require them to investigate whether you actually owe the funds. Unfortunately, Experian, TransUnion and Equifax may fail to perform the investigation in response to a dispute that is required by the Fair Credit Reporting Act. At that point, it is often possible to file a successful lawsuit against any of the credit reporting agencies still reporting the inaccurate debts, as well as the source of the inaccurate information.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act provides for fee-shifting that allows a consumer who has to sue the credit reporting agencies or the source of the incorrect information to have their attorneys’ fees paid by the parties who are stating false things about the consumer. There is also an opportunity for potential punitive damages, and damages caused by the injury to the consumer’s credit opportunities and stress and embarrassment caused by the situation.
The Law Offices of Joseph S. Mack handles Fair Credit Reporting Act cases in Maryland. We can work with you to help craft a dispute letter that will either get Experian, TransUnion or Equifax to remove the negative and false information from your credit report, or put you in a good position to sue if the information is not removed. And we can represent you in any lawsuit necessary to get the information removed if the dispute letter is unsuccessful, often using to fee-shifting to allow us to represent you without you needing to pay us to represent you.
Here is a short video on how to pull your free credit report from annualcreditreport.com, which is the website you should use to get your free credit report from each of the major credit reporting agencies. You can also click here to see instructions for how to download and send a copy of your free credit report on your phone.
Common types of cases that we handle include landlords falsely reporting unpaid rent, sometimes even after a court has ruled in favor of the tenant, identity theft situations, and incorrect charges from businesses. Another common problem that we can assist you with is unauthorized hard credit inquiries.
If you have incorrect information on your credit reports and would like a free telephone consultation with the Law Offices of Joseph S. Mack, please call today at (443) 423-0464 or fill out the form below. Also, if you have been a victim identity theft in Maryland and are looking for guidance on how to clean up your credit report, please click here to learn more.