Bad car credit loan mississippi

Counsel's efforts lead to verdict in suit against credit bureau over erroneous credit report

Cousin v. Trans Union Corp., U.S. Dist. Ct., N.D. Miss., No. 1:97CV93-S-D, May 13,1998.

In 1993, Terry Cousin learned an impostor had applied for credit and purchased a car using his name. Cousin obtained a copy of his credit report from Trans Union Corporation and found an address and delinquent car loan that were not his. He completed an investigation request, but the same information continued to appear on his credit report.

In an effort to restore his good credit, Cousin contacted ATLA member Michael T. Lewis of Clarksdale, Mississippi, to represent him in a claim against the credit bureau. In 1994, plaintiff sued Trans Union, alleging violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), 15 U.S.C. sec 1681 et seq., which requires credit bureaus to follow reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy of information in credit reports. The parties settled that claim for $15,000. As part of the settlement, Trans Union agreed to suppress the adverse data. Shortly after, however, the company reposted the incorrect address on Cousin's report, along with a delinquent cellular phone account that was not his.

Once again, Cousin completed an investigation request and sent it to Trans Union. After an investigation, the company agreed to suppress the delinquent account and erroneous address. In November 1996, however, a car dealership denied Cousin's credit application, citing a bad credit report. Cousin discovered his report still contained the erroneous information.

After an investigation, Trans Union deleted the delinquent account and incorrect address. Nevertheless, it again posted the delinquent car loan.

With Lewis and partner Pauline Shuler Lewis representing him, Cousin sued Trans Union again, alleging it had both willfully and negligently violated the FCRA.

Trans Union reportedly contended that ( 1 ) programming problems resulted in the deleted information reappearing and (2) the car dealership did not deny plaintiff credit because of the erroneous credit report.

Plaintiff also sued the cellular phone company, alleging defamation. In addition, plaintiff sued two other credit bureaus, Equifax and Memphis Consumer Credit Association (MCCA), alleging violation of sec FCRA 1681g, which requires a credit reporter to provide a consumer with a copy of his entire file upon request. Plaintiff claimed that Equifax had refused to provide him with a copy of his credit report. Although MCCA had given him a copy of his report, he alleged it did so only after "cleansing" the file to obscure the incorrect credit information.

Before trial, plaintiff settled with the cellular phone company for $35,000. Plaintiff also settled with Equifax for $30,000, and with MCCA for $40,000.

In preparation for trial against Trans Union, plaintiff's counsel used document acquisition and analysis to gain a thorough understanding of the case before taking any depositions. Then, they took depositions "to prove plaintiff's case out of defendant's mouth," Michael Lewis said. According to Mr. Lewis, "these trial video depositions proved devastating to the defense."

In addition, counsel prepared exhibits to tell plaintiff's story in a clear and concise manner. For example, they used a chronology during opening and closing statements to lay out the sequence of events for the jury. The chronology showed that "even as late as 60 days after the second lawsuit was filed, Trans Union still was issuing false credit reports, libeling plaintiff in the midst of a federal lawsuit," Mr. Lewis said. "The jury did not like it. It had a bad smell to it."

The jury awarded $4.52 million, including $4.47 million punitive damages.

Mr. Lewis hopes this case brings attention to a growing problem. He says that according to a recent U.S. Public Interest Research Group study of 133 consumer credit bureau reports, nearly one-third of them contained serious errors that could result in unfair denial of a car loan, a mortgage, or even a job. Seventy percent of the reports studied had errors of some kind.

JMK

[Documents in this case are available through the Court Documents section at p. 403, courtesy of Mr. Lewis.]