Woman Awarded $200,000 in Credit Reporting Suit

A Los Angeles jury has awarded $200,000 to a woman who sued one of the nation’s largest credit reporting firms alleging that it failed to correct her credit reports after someone used her Social Security number and last name to open fraudulent accounts at 15 stores across the country.

The federal court jury found that Trans Union violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act by releasing inaccurate credit reports on Los Angeles interpreter Lesley Wenger. She complained that the credit firm failed to investigate her repeated complaints that she was being unfairly branded a deadbeat.

The award Tuesday was the culmination of a 2 1/2-year credit nightmare, said Wenger, who recently moved to Texas.

“People were calling me at all hours of the day and night and waking me up night after night,” Wenger said. “They would badger me for money, for all kinds of things. The only thing that stopped the calls was when I left California.”

A spokesman for Trans Union, which is based in Chicago, declined to comment on the verdict or say whether the company plans to appeal.

“This is a shot across the bow for the entire credit reporting industry,” said Andrew Henderson, one of Wenger’s attorneys.

“This is an issue that affects us all--Trans Union alone issues over 200 million credit reports each year.”

Wenger’s credit problems began in 1993 when someone who has never been caught began using her identity to get credit at large department stores and other shops.

The applications were approved despite having incorrect birth dates, incorrect places of employment and even incorrect spellings of Wenger’s name.

After almost $15,000 worth of merchandise was charged, the stores began pursuing Wenger for payment.

Wenger alleged that Trans Union did little to investigate her complaints of fraud and simply sent forms to retailers asking if the debt was legitimate.

Last year, Wenger said, she thought she had finally cleared up the dispute and attempted to purchase a home in Hancock Park. But she discovered she could not obtain a loan because of her credit problem.

“I had spent my whole life building up my credit history,” she said. “And when I needed it, it wasn’t there, through no fault of my own.”

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, Trans Union is required to conduct prompt investigations of consumer disputes, said Wenger’s co-counsel Gus May of the nonprofit Center for Law in the Public Interest.

And it is obligated to follow “reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy” of the credit files, he said.

The jury found that Trans Union violated both of these requirements, May said.

Wenger also sued two other credit reporting services, TRW and Equifax, but they settled out of court days before the trial, the attorneys said.

Gerald Sauer, the lead trial attorney, said the case showed how consumers can face a “technological nightmare” when incorrect credit information gets in their computerized credit files.