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DISCLAIMER: This article is based on a complaint. The defendant has not responded to the complaint to present its side of the case. The claims mentioned are accusations and should be considered as such until and unless proven otherwise.
Disputes can come in all shapes and sizes, and they don’t even necessarily have to be filed with the furnisher itself. But does a complaint filed with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau count as a dispute? One consumer thinks so and is going to court to prove it. Originally filed in North Carolina state court and subsequently removed to federal court by the defendant, the plaintiff is accusing the defendant of not flagging the tradeline on her credit report as disputed after she filed her complaint with the CFPB.
The background: Back in May, the plaintiff “initiated a dispute” with the CFPB against the defendant for an “old medical debt,” according to the complaint. The defendant allegedly received the “dispute” the day it was filed with the CFPB and “concluded their investigation” the next day.
- In August, the plaintiff obtained a copy of her credit report and noticed that the tradeline in question that was being reported by the defendant did not indicate that the account was being disputed by the plaintiff.
- The failure to flag the account as disputed left the plaintiff feeling humiliated and embarrassed because “it creates a false impression to users of his credit report that he has simply ignored this debt when, in fact, he disputes the validity of the alleged debt.” I’ll note that the plaintiff’s first name is Phyllis and the complaint uses both the he and she pronouns, so it looks like maybe some of it was copied and pasted from another complaint or some other source.
The claims: The complaint accuses the defendant of violating Section 1692e(8) of the FDCPA because it did not mark the account in question as disputed.
