If you believe you have an FCRA (credit reporting) case against a credit reporting agency, creditor, or debt collector, please fill out the intake form at the bottom of this page!
EXPERIENCED CREDIT DISPUTE LAWYER
*Maryland Credit Report Lawyer Ingmar Goldson’s primary area of practice is FCRA credit reporting litigation. Credit Reporting Agencies and Creditors may be liable for actual damages, punitive damages, and/or statutory damages of $100 to $1,000 or more. At The Goldson Law Office, we will help you fix the credit reporting errors and mistakes that damage your financial reputation with CREDIT REPORTING DISPUTES and LITIGATION.
How Can I Fix My Credit Report?
If you think something may be wrong with your credit report, you should follow these steps:
- Obtain your credit reports from Experian, Equifax, and Trans Union. You can obtain free copies from www.annualcreditreport.com once every year. Be sure to save your credit reports as PDFs for your records, and so you can share them with an attorney if necessary. Read them, and identify all items that are misleading or being reporting inaccurately.
- Write dispute letters to each Credit Reporting Agency that is reporting anything that is misleading, inaccurate, or obsolete.
- The Credit Reporting Agencies have a maximum of 45 days to respond to your disputes. Look in the mail make sure everything has been corrected.
- If at this stage all of the misleading, inaccurate, and obsolete reporting has not been corrected, you likely have an actionable claim and should consider hiring an attorney.
About the Industry
The consumer reporting industry is a multi-billion dollar industry that will either facilitate or imperil a consumer’s access to credit, employment, or housing. The three biggest credit reporting agencies are Experian, Equifax, and Trans Union. These agencies collect public and personal information about all of us, and they sell that information to businesses worldwide.
Wait, selling our information without our consent? Doesn’t that sound like Facebook? In April of 2018, Mark Zuckerburg testified in front of Congress about Facebook. The controversy was that Facebook and its vendors were collecting information about Facebook users without their consent, then selling that information to others. People across the political spectrum, and across the country, were rightfully outraged because they were powerless over their personal information being sold and traded among people and entities that we did not know. Many many of these people had ill intentions. Zuckerburg underscored his intention to make sure users can OPT OUT of personal data collection practices of Facebook and its vendors.
What was missing from the facebook outrage was the parallels with Consumer Reporting Agencies. Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union will not stop aggregating and selling your personal information – no, you cannot OPT OUT. What makes matters worse is how often they sell false and damaging information about you, that could cause you to be fired or denied a loan or housing. Ask Equifax how carefully they protect all of your personal data that they collect. Or just google “Experian data breach.”
Reform of the Credit Reporting industry does not seem to be on the horizon. However, until their business practices are better regulated, contact The Goldson Law Office to fix any errors that you find on your credit report.
How Can The Goldson Law Office Help?
The Goldson Law Office sues creditors who report false, obsolete, or misleading information to credit reporting agencies like Experian, Equifax, and Trans Union. But maybe you are not sure whether you have a case? Or perhaps you are not sure if the credit reporting is actually wrong? If you are not sure about your case, just give click the button below and fill out our survey – we will get back to you shortly. The Goldson Law Office also offers free over-the-phone consultations.
How Do I Dispute Errors?
If you have found any errors, misleading information, or obsolete information on your credit report, you should dispute the reporting by sending a dispute letter with the following information:
- Your name and current address
- Either your full or last 4 digits of your social security number
- Your date of birth
- A thorough explanation of the error and a request to fix the error. Attach copies of supporting documents if you have any.
If you would like some advice for disputing erroneous or misleading reporting, contact us at The Goldson Law Office right away.
Can I Sue?
If you’ve been harmed by inaccurate, obsolete, or misleading credit reporting, and the Credit Reporting Agencies refuse to fix the problem, then you probably have a good case and you can sue. However, we do NOT recommend that you file a lawsuit pro se. You should hire an attorney to file a lawsuit and advocate on your behalf.
If you have a good case, you can sue the company that is reporting that bad information to the Credit Reporting Agency. We call those companies “furnishers” because they furnish information to Credit Reporting Agency.
The Credit Reporting Agencies (Experian, Equifax, and Trans Union) may also be liable in the same lawsuit. You should hire an attorney to make sure the proper parties are included in the lawsuit.