Texas Woman Sues Peopletrail After She Was Denied a Job Based on False Information in Her Consumer Report
Francis Mailman Soumilas, P.C., recently filed a lawsuit on behalf of a Texas woman against Peopletrail, LLC (“Peopletrail”) in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, alleging the company violated the U.S. Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”).
According to the complaint in the lawsuit, around October 2022, our client applied for a job with Mountain America Credit Union (“Mountain America”) for a customer service advocate position. In connection with her application, Mountain America requested from Peopletrail, and Peopletrail sold to Mountain America, a consumer report regarding our client on or around November 3, 2022.
The consumer report Peopletrail sold to Mountain America allegedly contained derogatory and inaccurate statements and information regarding our client and her criminal record history. Specifically, the inaccurate information includes, but is not limited to, a felony of aggravated robbery – deadly weapon, which does not belong to our client. Instead, that criminal history belongs to another individual.
Because of Peopletrail’s alleged misconduct, our client was denied a job from Mountain America. In fact, she was informed by Mountain America that the only basis for its denial of her application was the inaccurate criminal history on her consumer report.
The complaint alleges Peopletrail violated the FCRA by failing to follow reasonable procedures to assure the maximum possible accuracy of the information it reported about our client, which led to the company mixing our client’s consumer report with that of at least one other consumer’s report, resulting in her consumer report containing an inaccurate criminal history. Had Peopletrail followed these procedures, it wouldn’t have mixed these consumer reports.
“When companies like Peopletrail flout the FCRA and other consumer protection laws, they cause real damage to the lives of the people those laws protect,” said Joseph L. Gentilcore, the lawyer at Francis Mailman Soumilas, P.C. who filed the lawsuit. “In this case, our client lost the opportunity to earn a living and put food on the table by no fault of her own because Peopletrail appears to lack the procedures it is lawfully required to have under the FCRA to avoid mixing information on consumers’ reports.”
As a result of PeopleTrail’s alleged misconduct, our client has suffered actual damages in the form of lost employment opportunities, harm to reputation, and emotional distress, including humiliation and embarrassment.
The relief our client is seeking in the lawsuit includes, among other things, actual damages, statutory damages, punitive damages, and attorneys’ fees.
If your consumer report or employment background check contains inaccurate information about you, you may be able to recover damages against the credit reporting agency that created it. If you do so, the credit reporting agency may also be required to pay your attorneys’ fees and costs.
Click here or call 215-735-8600 to schedule a free case review with a representative of Francis Mailman Soumilas, P.C. Located in Philadelphia, Chicago, New York, and San Francisco, we serve clients nationwide.