Consumer Reporting Agency CIC Falsely Reported Man as Sex Offender With Criminal History, Class Action Says [DISMISSED]

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A Florida resident claims in a proposed class action that consumer reporting agency Contemporary Information Corp. (CIC) falsely reported that he was a registered sex offender and had previously pled guilty to traffic violations.

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The 39-page lawsuit alleges that CIC, in violation of the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), failed to ensure the “maximum possible accuracy” of the data it sold about the plaintiff, a man who has no criminal record and whose consumer report included information that he says was “flat out wrong.”

According to the suit, the plaintiff learned in 2023 that CIC had furnished false information about him to a third-party real estate investment firm at which he had applied for a job two years earlier and been denied. The consumer report CIC sold to the prospective employer in 2021 wrongly identified the man as a sex offender from Nevada with a prior felony conviction for “attempted sexual assault,” and as currently residing in Texas, the case says. The CIC report also incorrectly stated that he had pled guilty to careless driving in Pennsylvania in March 2021, the complaint adds.

The filing contends that the information included in the CIC report was patently false, as the plaintiff “is not nor has ever been a registered sex offender;” has “never set foot in Texas, Nevada, or Pennsylvania” and has a “squeaky clean” criminal history.

As the lawsuit tells it, this incorrect data would never have been disseminated had CIC complied with its obligations under the FCRA, a law which requires consumer reporting agencies to maintain reasonable procedures to assure reported information is as accurate as possible.

Per the suit, it is CIC’s “standard practice” to use data that only partially matches a consumer’s identifying information when preparing a report. The case charges that the company also fails to use a “reasonable number of identifiers” that would prevent data belonging to one individual from appearing in another’s background report.

As a result, CIC mixed the plaintiff’s files with those of two other men with the same first and last name—one a registered sex offender, and the other a man who pled guilty to the traffic violations in 2021, the complaint alleges. Notably, the plaintiff’s middle name and date of birth do not match those of the strangers, the filing points out.

“CIC’s reporting of the inaccurate information concerning [the plaintiff] was not accidental or a result of simple negligence but instead a result of deliberate disregard for is [sic] FCRA obligations and flawed policies and procedures,” the lawsuit claims.

Under the FCRA, a consumer reporting agency disseminating negative public record data that is “likely to adversely affect a consumer’s ability to obtain employment” must provide the subject with contemporaneous notice of the report and to whom it is being distributed, the suit shares. In addition, the federal law requires that a consumer reporting agency such as CIC, upon a consumer’s request, must disclose the full contents of their file, the sources of the data, and the identities of all entities to whom it has been reported, the case says.

Despite CIC’s obligations under the FCRA, the company failed to notify the plaintiff that it was disseminating information about him that would likely have a negative impact on his employment opportunities, the complaint contends. Moreover, the filing adds that the man was denied employment without receiving a copy of his report, as required by law.

Finally, the suit alleges that CIC has furnished consumer reports to its clients without first obtaining certification that the end-user had provided the subject with a disclosure, and that the consumer had authorized in writing the procurement of their report.

The lawsuit looks to represent any employees and job applicants in the United States who, within the past five years, were the subject of a consumer report furnished by and obtained through CIC that was provided without the user’s certification of compliance with 15 U.S.C. § 1681b(b)(2) and (3), and/or that included criminal history entries of the grade of misdemeanor or higher.

The suit also seeks to cover any consumers who, within the past five years, were the subject of a consumer report released by CIC without the company first requiring the user of the consumer report to identify itself and certify the purpose for which the report would be used.

The case further aims to represent those who were the subject of a CIC consumer report to whom the company failed to disclose the consumer’s request, the sources of the information contained in their report or the identification of each entity that procured it.

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