DOOR SHUT AND EARS PLUGGED: HOW CONSUMER REPORTING CASTS IDENTITY THEFT VICTIMS OUT OF FINANCIAL SOCIETY AND HOW THE LAW CAN BE HARMONIZED TO BRING THEM BACK IN

Authors

Ryan Bolger

First Page

155

Abstract

Consumer Reporting Agencies (CRAs) are the gatekeepers to the American economy. As the chief informants for prospective lenders, landlords, and employers, they exert immense power over the day-to-day decisions of who gets what. Despite these high stakes, the CRAs run consumer reporting as an automated electronic process that causes a lot of reporting errors, disqualifying consumers from essential goods, services, and opportunities. This is painfully true in the context of identity theft, where perverse incentives pollute the integrity of consumer reporting, piling undue harm onto identity theft victims. The law provides a remedy for this problem, but circuit courts are split on whether to allow it for identity theft victims, adopting different approaches. This Note proposes a solution that seeks to harmonize the caselaw in the Third and Seventh Circuits with a fair and practical rule. In doing so, it will dismiss a rule from the First and Ninth Circuits.

Recommended Citation

Ryan Bolger, DOOR SHUT AND EARS PLUGGED: HOW CONSUMER REPORTING CASTS IDENTITY THEFT VICTIMS OUT OF FINANCIAL SOCIETY AND HOW THE LAW CAN BE HARMONIZED TO BRING THEM BACK IN, 15 Brook. J. Corp. Fin. & Com. L. 155 (2020).
Available at: https://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/bjcfcl/vol15/iss1/7