Legal Question in Consumer Law in California

Consumer Reporting Agency

Can I file a lawsuit against a consumer reporting agency that provided some out dated criminal history information to my future employer. My total compensation for this job was going to be greater than 125K annually.

CA Civil Code 1786.18 states an investigative consumer reporting agency may not make or furnish any investigative consumer report containing any of the following items of information:

Records of arrest, indictment, information, misdemeanor complaint, or conviction of a crime that, from the date of disposition, release, or parole, antedate the report by more than seven years. These items of information shall no longer be reported if at any time it is learned that, in the case of a conviction, a full pardon has been granted or, in the case of an arrest, indictment, information, or misdemeanor complaint, a conviction did not result; except that records of arrest, indictment, information, or misdemeanor complaints may be reported pending pronouncement of judgment on the particular subject matter of those records.

Clearly this consumer reporting agency violated the law in this matter as this criminal conviction occurred 14 years ago.


Asked on 5/21/07, 7:39 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Jonathan Stein Law Offices of Jonathan G. Stein

Re: Consumer Reporting Agency

It is not necessarily based on the conviction. When were you released from parole? That is the date you need to calculate it from.

Even if they misreported it, would you have gotten the job? Most jobs that pay you that kind of money require you to answer a question about whether you have ever been convicted of a crime. How did you answer that question? If you did not answer that truthfully, the employer probably would not have offered you the job anyway.

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Answered on 5/22/07, 11:27 am


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