Types of Damages
Credit reporting agencies have come to wield an extraordinary amount of power over virtually every aspect of our lives: Whether we can buy a home or car, the interest rate we receive when we do, even our ability to find a job is controlled, in some way, by the “Big Three” credit agencies (TransUnion, Equifax and Experian).
So when a company a Big Three makes a mistake on a credit report, it can have extensive, harmful repercussions…even if we don’t find out about the mistake until years later. And if they won’t fix that mistake a lawsuit is in order.
Reputation in profession or among peers.
Loss of financial independence: useful for women and young adults
Loss of self esteem
Invasion of privacy
Emotional distress, embarrassment, frustration
What types and kinds of damages are available in such a lawsuit? Here are some examples.
- Denial of credit: prove causation through witness and documents
- Increased cost of credit: prove through witness and documents
- Lost opportunity to obtain credit: failure to receive unsolicited offers
- Damage to reputation
- Derogatory info sent to insurers, creditors, banks and employers
- Use list of recipients on credit report to show who got report
- wrongful disclosure, common in mixed file cases
- contacts from creditors because location information was sold
- being denied credit
- having to explain the errors on the credit report
- having to dispute with the defendant
- frustration due to the defendant not fixing it
- knowing that false information is being reported