Class action lawsuits under the Fair Credit Reporting Act have been a major source of liability for employers with nearly 4,000 federal cases filed in 2018 and over almost 2,000 filed as of mid-August, 2019.
In the past few years, we have seen staggering, multi-million dollar awards against a number of well-known companies. The damages flow from the failure of these employers to strictly adhere to the technical requirements of the FCRA.
Plaintiff lawyers love the FCRA since the statute authorizes compensatory, statutory and punitive damages plus the award of attorney fees and expenses. Technical violations are easy to prove and the class of affected individuals can become large for employers that perform significant amounts of hiring.