Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Virginia

Re: Collections Procedures

Technically, a creditor or collection agency must be a member or "subscriber" of the credit bureau to submit reports to the bureau. Also, when a lawsuit is filed, the bureaus will eventually pick this up on their own, probably. They must comply with the bureau's rules.

The bureau will basically believe anything that a subscriber tells them. One bureau was reporting someone as dead, when they were alive.

You can dispute an item on the credit report. The credit bureau will then ask the creditor to confirm the negative report. The creditor will answer "yeah, we're sure" and the credit bureau will believe anything they say.

At that point you have a right to have a short statement included in your credit report. If you write a cleverly-worded statement that has no emotion and no profanity but shows that the creditor is made up of idiots (don't say that, let the reader draw that conclusion), the creditor will drop the item off of your credit report.

Also, some states allow you to sue the credit bureau on a defamation theory, but Congress has so thoroughly screwed this thing up that you probably have no legal recourse.