Score one for the little guy- Equifax to pay 18.6 million

[EVT1]

www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2013/07/equifax_must_pay_186_million_a.html#incart_m-rpt-2

     Julie Miller of Marion County, who was awarded $18.4 million in punitive and $180,000 in compensatory damages, contacted Equifax eight times between 2009 and 2011 in an effort to correct inaccuracies, including erroneous accounts and collection attempts, as well as a wrong Social Security number and birthday. Yet over and over, the lawsuit alleged, the Atlanta-based company failed to correct its mistakes.

  

I have an error on mine that has been there for years, I have reported it numerous times- and they have done nothing.  Eff em.  They deserve to pay up.
 

[billisonboard]

What an absurd amount of money in punitive damages.

[Sum Dum Gai]

What an absurd amount of money in punitive damages.

Companies only care about the bottom line.  If you give them a monetary slap on the wrist they won't change their behavior.  The fine has to be high enough to make some bean counter somewhere decided that it's worth changing their policy on correcting false information, instead of refusing and occasionally paying a small fine if somebody cares enough to take it through the court system.

[Opti]

I have a feeling that large punitive damages might be because of the below:

The issue wasn't a result of identify theft, Baxter said. Instead, the information from another "Julie Miller" had simply been placed in the plaintiff's record by mistake. In at least one case, the lawsuit alleged, the plaintiff's private financial information was sent to companies inquiring about the other Julie Miller.

"There was damage to her reputation, a breach of her privacy and the lost opportunity to seek credit," said Justin Baxter, the Portland attorney who teamed on the case with his father and law partner, Michael Baxter. "She has a brother who is disabled and who can't get credit on his own and she wasn't able to help him."

[EVT1]

Jul 27, 2013 22:55:27 GMT -5 billisonboard said:

What an absurd amount of money in punitive damages.

Based on what?  The victim I agree does not need to be paid that much, and the lawyer does not either- BUT- it has to be done for a company like that to take notice. I think it should be higher- they have so much power over us, and nevermind the fact that we never signed up or wanted their service- yet are held by their decisions when it comes to all financial matters.  If they cannot be bothered to get it right, then I have no problem with a punitive awards that takes every dime of their profits for a year.  What is absurd is allowing companies like that to exist at all without severe limits on their activity.

[EVT1]

As I mentioned- my credit report has a collection action on it- I found out about it when I bought my house.  It wasn't me, wasn't my bill, but it was on my credit report and it cost me on my home loan.  I got the free credit report- and it is not on all of them- but Experion shows it- I sent the forms in, etc.- and 5 fucking years later it is still on there.  Same name- that's it.  So fuck them- I am sure I lost at least a point on my loan- even though the rep said they ignored that entry.  Absurd is letting these assholes continue to screw people without repercussions. 

[billisonboard]

We need a system in which money like that can go towards solving the problem.

[fairlycrazy23]

I don't know if the punitive damages are excessive or absurd, if a company willfully violates the law they should be punished so that it hurts.

However,  I don't think that the punitive damages should go to the plantiff, but I'm not really sure where they should go, I don't want it to go to the government, so maybe some kind of fund that can be used to help offset legal costs for the poor.

[zibazinski]

Oh, don't worry about the plaintiff collecting. I'm sure the lawyers got a huge cut of that settlement!

[billisonboard]

Jul 29, 2013 7:01:08 GMT -5 fairlycrazy23 said:

I don't know if the punitive damages are excessive or absurd, if a company willfully violates the law they should be punished so that it hurts.

However,  I don't think that the punitive damages should go to the plantiff, but I'm not really sure where they should go, I don't want it to go to the government, so maybe some kind of fund that can be used to help offset legal costs for the poor.

Or, in this case, to employ people to fix problems on credit reports.

[EVT1]

So you think the company should keep it and 'employ' people to do a job they are already supposed to do?  Or maybe it goes to a consumer based organization to help people get traction when dealing with these assholes?

I'd go for the latter.

[Politically_Incorrect12]

Jul 27, 2013 22:55:27 GMT -5 billisonboard said:

What an absurd amount of money in punitive damages.

I agree it is an absurd amount for one person.  When I saw the number, I figured it was from a class action lawsuit, not one plaintiff.  I'm not saying it's acceptable for the three credit companies to do what they do, and I really don't like how there really doesn't seem to be a clear explanation of how credit score actually work, but $18.4 million seems excessive.  I wonder if the other Julie Miller is going to get part of that since it seems the same thing happened to her.  What will future rulings be if other cases start coming out because of this case?

[fairlycrazy23]

I wouldn't be so quick to call the amount of damages absurd (its 100 times actual damages) , the problem with these credit agencies is that the people on the reports are not their customers, their customers are the lenders and other users of the reports so the people getting screwed over by these credit agencies have very little leverage over the credit reporting agencies, legal action is really the only recourse.

And if 18 million doesn't get Equifax to change there polices, then maybe next time it should be 30million, at some point the bean counters will get the message.

Just giving the money back to Equifax with stipulations you have to use the money fix peoples credit reports is very bad idea, that sends the message you can just wait to be caught and then spend the money you should have been spending all along.

But I still don't like the idea that the 18 million is going to this individual and lawyers and would it rather go to some kind of legal fund.

[Politically_Incorrect12]

Jul 29, 2013 12:02:55 GMT -5 fairlycrazy23 said:

I wouldn't be so quick to call the amount of damages absurd (its 100 times actual damages) , the problem with these credit agencies is that the people on the reports are not their customers, their customers are the lenders and other users of the reports so the people getting screwed over by these credit agencies have very little leverage over the credit reporting agencies, legal action is really the only recourse.

And if 18 million doesn't get Equifax to change there polices, then maybe next time it should be 30million, at some point the bean counters will get the message.

Just giving the money back to Equifax with stipulations you have to use the money fix peoples credit reports is very bad idea, that sends the message you can just wait to be caught and then spend the money you should have been spending all along.

But I still don't like the idea that the 18 million is going to this individual and lawyers and would it rather go to some kind of legal fund.

If a lot of this money was put toward a fund to help others recover cost, I'd be ok with it.  However, I think giving a person more than they could hope to make in multiple lifetimes in this situation is too much.  Don't get me wrong, I have issue with the credit bureaus and how nobody really seems to understand how credit scores are determined...and I really don't understand how it seems like any blemish causes your credit to take so much larger of a hit than making payments on time.  I realize that credit can be built up over time, but I've heard of people complaining that something like a $200 bill that goes to collections for whatever reason can trash their credit more than paying their $1000/month house payment on time every month. I also have an issue with credit being used for determining premum payments and I think it has been abused in the past to hurt job applicants.  I also don't understand why there are three companies, and if one of them shows something the other two don't show, companies will look at the one with the lowest credit score in determining credit worthiness.  So I'm not have a big proponent of the credit bureaus, but I can't wrap my head about that much of a payment for one person.

[ZaireinHD]

Equifax to pay for their blunder - Link

how does the court come up with such ridiculous large amounts of money to be awarded?
I could see if this woman was already rich, and Equifax not doing their job to fix her report errors. but this is some Joe-Anna Smo, then why so much money? no mention of her having to be put out of her home and she had to pay close to $18 mil.

I just can't see if my credit report had errors and Equifax took their sweet ass time to make corrections and I take them to court because what's the hold up? I don't see suing for millions?

[mmhmm]

There's already a thread on this subject, Zaire.  I'm going to move your post into that thread.

mmhmm, Administrator

[ZaireinHD]

how does these ridiculos large amounts of money get awarded to people? I could understand if this woman had to pay something out of her own money for Equifax blunder. But that is very doubtful!

[Tennesseer]

Zaire-look down page one of the Current Events board.  A thread was started several days ago about this.