Experion Denies FCRA Violations in Mo. Suit Involving Verizon

Experian denies it violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act, said the credit reporting agency in an answer Wednesday to an Oct. 7 complaint (docket 4:22-cv-00637) in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Missouri. Helen Pollak, an O’Fallon, Missouri, consumer, sued Verizon and Experian for FCRA violations on grounds that Experian refuses to remove a “fraudulent” Verizon account from her credit profile and Verizon “has refused to communicate about the account” and has provided no “avenue” to correct the record. Most of Pollak's allegations "relate entirely to another defendant," said Experian in reference to Verizon, "and thus Experian is without knowledge or information sufficient to form a belief as to the truth of those allegations." Verizon has yet to answer the complaint. Pollak's claim for punitive damages "is barred to the extent such sanctions are imposed without requiring the burden of proof to be beyond a reasonable doubt," said Experian. The sanctions "do not accord with the protections" of the Eighth Amendment prohibiting excessive fines and the Fifth and 14th Amendments against procedural due process and equal protection violations, it said. Pollak's complaint said she “finds it profoundly unfair that Verizon can allegedly ‘verify’ false information, and Experian continues to let them do it.” Either Verizon “conducted no real investigation” of Pollak’s disputes, or the probes “were so lacking as to allow fraudulent information known to be false and highly damaging” to remain in Pollak’s credit file, it said. “Verizon’s failures in this regard are exacerbated by the sheer number of times it was contacted about this particular account.” The suit seeks statutory and punitive damages for violations of the FCRA.