Equifax Must Pay $18.6 Million After Failing to Fix Oregon Woman’s Credit Report
July 29th, 2013Via: The Oregonian:
A jury Friday awarded an Oregon woman $18.6 million after she spent two years unsuccessfully trying to get Equifax Information Services to fix major mistakes on her credit report.
The judgement, likely to be appealed, appears to be one of the largest awarded to a consumer in a case against one of the nation’s major credit bureaus.
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.
Research Credit: ottilie
The problem with a lawsuit is that the judgment ends up being paid by the stockholders, many of whom are John and Mary Lunchbucket who have shares in mutual funds, etc. When needs to happen is for those at Equifax who are responsible for this travesty to pay out of their own pockets. More properly, they should be sent to prison.