Well, I'm finally going to file my lawsuit for a non-permissible purpose credit pull. I had a dispute over a 90 day late with my college, and after I complained about it, they did a non-pp inquiry. That was almost a year ago, and they still haven't removed the inquiry or deleted the 90 day late, so its time to resolve this in court. I do have a couple questions before I write my suit and file. Is it true that I have to make an attempt to settle? I have sent multiple letters requesting settlement-but they refuse. Is this enough? I will file in Arlington, VA small claims court. Is anyone familiar with previous decisions in VA dealing with non-pp inquiries? (There must be some, since capital one is in VA) How do I demonstrate that the FCRA can be applied in state court? What prior decisions (in VA) enforce this? Any help would be much appreciated. Anyone have stories of similar successes? Stevehalejob@hotmail.com Steve
1. You don't have to attempt a settlement but it always looks good to the Judge that you did. 2: You don't need any Court decisions to show that State Court is the appropriate venue for FCRA actions since FCRA itself says it can be tried in any Federal Court or "other court of competent jurisdiction". Here in AZ I just point to the part of Arizona Revised Statutes that allows out-of-state defendants to be sued in AZ Courts, then to the section in ARS that assigns all civil matters under $5000 to Small Claims Court. 3: Just because Cap1 is located in Virginia, don't expect that they have been sued often in VA. See the "long-Arm" statute workings in #2 above. I am presently suing Sears for a non PP pull. They have refused to settle, they have actually retained an AZ attorney and have elevated the case from Small Claims Court to County Court. As soon as I get the new docket number I am amending my complaint to request that the Court assess $1 million in punitive damages in addition to the $1000 I am suing for. I will also be sending their attorney a long Discovery Demand that will send Sears ona huge paper cahse, and give me a long list of people to depose and sobpoena for trial.
I don't know what the college will do when they get my suit. (Actually, it is just one person in charge of collections at the school who is holding all this up. Chances are, she wrote the policy on reporting library fees for lost books--which i returned--to the credit bureas. She also most certainly was the only one responsible for the non-PP inquiry when I complained about the TLs on my credit report. I doubt anyone else in the college admin has heard of my complaints, so when the Sherif serves the college president, my guess is that she's going to be getting a lot of questions and will wish she had never heard of me. I'd be really interested in reading your motion for discovery. I might need to do something similar to make them see that this isn't worth their time.
