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How can i set up a class action lawsuit for slander/defamation of character against Fair Isaac and the credit bureaus?

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seeker

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Jan 8, 2010, 3:41:37 PM1/8/10
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How does one get a class action lawsuit going?

Barry Gold

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Jan 9, 2010, 11:28:48 AM1/9/10
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In article <90ec908f-78d4-4c71...@s31g2000yqs.googlegroups.com>,
seeker <mothman...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>How can i set up a class action lawsuit for slander/defamation of
>character against Fair Isaac and the credit bureaus?

>How does one get a class action lawsuit going?

See a lawyer. Class actions are *much* too complicated for someone
filing pro se (for himself, without a lawyer). In addition to proving
the underlying cause of action, you *also* need to establish that the
same tort has been (allegedly) committed against many other people
*and* that other people are affected in much the same way as you have
been.

SOund simple? Not when the other side has high-priced lawyers to
argue why it isn't.

But even beside that, I suspect your proposed lawsuit is a non-starter,
for several reasons:

1. Defamation applies only to _false_ statements about a person. If
the credit bureaus are reporting the truth (about a person's late
payments, etc.), then you will lose on that ground. The same applies
to Fair Isaac, but perhaps even more so. They are reporting the
results of applying a mathematical formula to the information reported
by one or more credit bureaus. This is either
a) truth (and thus not slander/libel), or
b) an opinion (and hence not subject to slander/libel suit)

2. There are special rules for credit reporting bureaus. AFAIK, you
cannot (successfully) sue a credit for defamation as long as they
comply with those rules. Basically, this amounts to:
a) They must correctly report what creditors report to them. (They
can't make up stuff -- positive _or_ negative -- on their own.)
b) If you dispute a negative item, they must remove it and go
back to the creditor for verification. If the creditor verifies it,
they put it back in your report. In that case, your (legal) beef is
with the creditor, not with the credit bureau. And, yes, you _can_
successfully sue a creditor for a false report. There's even a
special term for such a lawsuit: libel of credit.
c) If you continue to dispute the negative item, you are allowed to
add your own explanation of up to 25 words to the credit report.
Unfortunately, most lenders these days use automated systems that
don't take those explanations into account.

So, bottom line: if you don't like how our credit reporting system
works, write your representative and senators and try to get it
changed. When doing so, try to figure out what you would replace it
with.
--
Barry Gold, webmaster:
Conchord: http://www.conchord.org
Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society, Inc.: http://www.lasfsinc.org

d...@practical.org

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Jan 9, 2010, 12:10:18 PM1/9/10
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seeker <mothman...@yahoo.com> asks:

> How does one get a class action lawsuit going?

For one who has not been sought out by such attorneys, by finding
lawyers with sufficient knowledge, experience, and the financial
ability to try to initiate a class action and by persuading them to
try to get such a lawsuit going by them in turn persuading the
relevant court that a class action and not lawsuits by individual
would-be class members or some other means of dispute resolution by
such individuals is the probably more realistic, fairest, and
otherwise most desirable way to adjudicate whatever are the claims
alleged by the assertedly representative plaintiff or plaintiffs.

To do this, these lawyers will be required to give such notice as the
court will direct to the class as a whole of their intent to proceed
in class action form (a step that often entails considerable
out-of-pocket expense) then to demonstrate to the court's satisfaction
as a preliminary matter all of the following:

That there is an identifiable class that is so numerous that
direct individual joinder of each class member is not practicable;

That there are factual or legal issues and claims common to
the alleged class as a whole which overcome individual claims of and
relevant issues peculiar to class members considered individually;

That the claims of the one to whom you refer and of any
other plaintiffs who seek to represent the class typify claims of the
class as a whole;

That a class action would avoid a likelihood of inconsistent
adjudications such as those that, but for a unitary class action
determination, realistically might impose liability on the defendant
under color of significantly differing legal standards or establish
substantially differing future requirements of conduct for that party;

That a class action also very probably would avoid a risk
that the outcomes of lawsuits by one class member or by only a
comparatively few individual members would have the precedental or
other effect of disposing of the of the interests of the other class
members not parties to such individual adjudications or of otherwise
substantially impairing the ability of such other class members to
protect their interests;

That in light of whatever may be other factors pertinent to
the particular lawsuit, a class action prosecuted and adjudicated in
whatever is the court in question and not be some other means in some
other forum or place is superior to other available methods of fairly
and efficiently adjudicating the alleged controversy; and, also very
importantly,

That whoever is the one to whom you refer and his or her
attorneys have the ability to and very probably will ably and fairly
represent the class as a whole.


While more than a little vague and therefore cryptic, your reference
to slander (ie., damagingly false oral statements about an individual
which may or may not be partly or wholly privileged) would seem at
least presumptively to be antithetical to class action determination
and your also merely generalized reference to defamation (libel?) of
what possibly you suppose to be numerous persons other than you which
you speculate results in some way from the communication of FICO
scores (where, when, by what means, and by who and to whom?) leaves
unanswered how, with respect to any one person, such a so-called
"score" presumably based on that individual's types of credit used in
the pasts, amounts and payment history, length of use of credit in
other relevant ways, amounts owed, new credit sought, etc., could
result in written non-privileged and reputation damaging falsehoods
determinable as a class matter.

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