Is there a light at the end of the tunnel for companies facing claims that they did not remove a dispute notification from an account after a consumer rescinded a dispute? A District Court judge in Georgia has granted requests from plaintiffs in two separate Fair Debt Collection Practices Act lawsuits seeking to voluntarily dismiss their claims against the same defendant.
Copies of the rulings in the cases of Smith v. LVNV Funding and Herald v. LVNV Funding can be accessed by clicking here and here.
In both cases, the plaintiffs filed suit accusing the defendant of failing to remove a dispute comment from the plaintiff’s credit report. There have been a number of lawsuits filed across the country where plaintiffs dispute items on their credit reports, then ask to have the disputes removed, and file lawsuits if the collectors fail to remove the disputes from the consumers’ credit reports.
In both cases, the defendant filed motions for summary judgment, arguing the plaintiffs lacked standing to sue in federal court because they did not suffer a concrete injury. In one of the cases, the judge held a hearing to address the question of whether the plaintiff had standing or not, but in both cases, the plaintiff voluntarily sought to have the cases dismissed. In both cases, the plaintiffs cited “recent opinions” that “were issued within the last few months and did not exist when [he] filed this action,” he “has decided to not pursue [his] claims any further,” according to Judge Marc T. Treadwell of the District Court for the Middle District of Georgia. “These opinions were issued within the last few months and did not exist when Plaintiff filed this action, which is why Plaintiff is now willing to dismiss this action.”
