Plaintiff in FCRA Case Settles With Equifax; Moves for Default vs. Experian

Plaintiff Rebecca Kineman reached a settlement with Equifax in a negligence case involving fraudulent credit reports, said her counsel in a notice of settlement (docket 6:23-cv-01437) Monday in U.S. District Court for Middle Florida in Orlando. The parties are drafting and finalizing the settlement agreement, it said. Also Monday, Kineman filed a motion for default against defendant Experian, which hasn't filed a response to her July 28 complaint. Kineman reached a settlement with TransUnion, said a Monday notice (see 2308010051), and U.S. District Judge Anne Conway dismissed defendant Verizon without prejudice from the action last month (see 2309130043). The lawsuit against the three credit reporting agencies, Verizon Wireless and Fair Collections & Outsourcing (FCO) alleges negligence and violation of the Fair Credit Reporting and Fair Debt Collection Practices acts. The complaint says Kineman is alleged to owe a debt to Verizon for an account she never applied for and that Verizon furnished inaccurate information about her to the agencies. FCO also furnished inaccurate information about her to the CRAs about an apartment lease she never applied for, it said. Due to the false reports, Kineman was denied a loan she applied for early this year, the complaint said. When she obtained copies of her credit reports in April with fraudulent information, she found the Verizon account in her name had a “closed” and "in collection" status with all the CRAs with a balance of $1,656; the “inaccurate and fraudulent” FCO account was reported by Experian and TransUnion with a status of “collection” and a balance of $59,195, it said.