Jury Orders Trans Union to Pay

Trans Union Credit Information Co. was ordered to pay $275,000 to a California woman who sued the company for maintaining inaccurate information about her, including that she was married to her son. The closely held Chicago company was ordered to pay the money even though the woman wasn’t denied credit as a result of the inaccuracies. Trans Union is one of three major credit agencies maintaining files on U.S. consumers. The others are Equifax Inc. of Atlanta and Experian Corp., a unit of Great Universal Stores of London. “I would hope that the consumers now feel they can stand up and have a voice,” Rene Geesey-Guimond said after the jury verdict Thursday in federal court in Oakland. Trans Union executives declined to comment.