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Financial Services Law Insights and Observations

District court grants partial summary judgment, rules bank did not violate federal and state fair credit reporting laws

Courts State Issues FCRA Credit Reporting Agency Disclosures

Courts

On April 25, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted a bank’s partial motion for summary judgment, holding that a Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) disclosure and authorization form (disclosure form) completed by the plaintiff as part of the bank’s background check hiring process did not violate federal and state fair credit reporting laws. The plaintiff—who brought the proposed class action suit following the bank’s decision not to hire plaintiff following an offer of employment that was contingent upon a satisfactory background check—asserted claims under the FCRA, the California Investigative Consumer Reporting Agencies Act (ICRA), and the California Consumer Credit Reporting Agencies Act (CCRA), including that (i) the disclosure form was not a standalone document; (ii) the disclosure did not accurately identify the investigative consumer reporting agency; and (iii) the bank failed to comply with CCRA disclosure requirements.

Addressing whether the disclosure form, which “appeared as a separate and distinct web page separated from the rest of the documents,” violated the FCRA, the court ruled that because it “was a stand-alone document that contained no extraneous information or liability waiver” it was in compliance. The court also determined that the bank did not violate the ICRA because it was only required to disclose the agency it engaged to provide an investigative consumer report, not the various sources the agency itself may have used when conducting its investigation. Finally, the court ruled that the plaintiff’s argument that the disclosure form failed to comply with the CCRA lacked merit because—although the bank could not apply an exemption under state law to the section allegedly violated—the bank’s disclosure form complied with the CCRA’s disclosure requirements, and furthermore, the bank was not required to disclose the reasons for requesting the report nor the “various repositories” of information the disclosed source used when compiling the report.