FDCPA Lawsuit: 2 Paid Medical Bills Were Left on Credit Report

An unlawful debt collection lawsuit was filed in Baltimore against multiple debt collection agencies, alleging that they are guilty of violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA).

Plaintiff Cimon L. included nine defendants in the FDCPA lawsuit and claims that she was asked to pay debts she did not actually owe and had unauthorized credit reports pulled.

Illegal Debt Collection

According to the debt collection lawsuit, Cimon had incurred medical bills. Later, she was contacted by two of the defendants and told she owed two debs of $41.00 and $73.00. She was unaware of where these debts came from and was unable to find out the source of the bill.

The FDCPA lawsuit pointed out that “neither Defendant could provide any documentation supporting that a balance was owed or that the Defendants had a right to collect the debt.”

For the sake of simplicity, Cimon agreed to pay the debts if the actions would not appear on her credit reports: “the sole basis for Plaintiff paying the debt was to have it removed from her credit reports,” said the FDCPA lawsuit.

However, when she later attempted to obtain credit, she realized that the defendants did not remove the debt from her credit report.

Unauthorized Credit Pulls

Over the course of about a year and a half, Cimon’s credit report was obtained by several credit unions such as Discover, Credit One, and American Express, according to the FDCPA lawsuit.

However, Cimon claims that they obtained her credit report without permission because she did not receive “a firm offer of credit” from any party. 

These unauthorized inquiries appeared on the plaintiff’s Experian credit report. Cimon claims that Experian failed to prevent her credit report from being released for these “unauthorized and impermissible purposes,” the FDCPA lawsuit says.

FDCPA Lawsuit

The defendants have been accused of failing to prevent credit report disclosure and of “knowingly and willfully [using] deception and false pretenses to obtain Plaintiff’s consumer report, by falsely representing or certifying that the report was being obtained for a permissible purpose,” the unfair debt collection lawsuit says.

Cimon claims these actions caused her great distress which was combined with the fact that she was recently a victim of identity theft. These actions have caused her to incur large economic losses and to suffer from severe emotional distress.

Furthermore, the debt collection agencies were guilty of FDCPA violations because they had no right to the alleged debt. She demanded a trial by jury.

The plaintiff is seeking over $100,000 in damages.

This FDCPA Lawsuit is Case No. 1:15-cv-01573 and Civil Action No. 03C15003480 filed in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County, Maryland.

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DISCLAIMER: Debt collection itself is not illegal. However, debt collection firms collecting on consumer debts must adhere to the FDCPA. Even though debt attorneys are investigating these companies, their debt collection practices may be legal.