A credit report error is not a clerical nuisance — it is a legal problem with a legal solution. The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires Equifax, Experian, TransUnion, and the companies that report information to them to maintain accurate information and to reasonably investigate your disputes. When they do not, Wisconsin consumers can sue — and the credit bureaus can be made to pay damages and your attorney fees.
What the FCRA Requires
- Accuracy: Credit bureaus must follow reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy of your report;
- Real investigations: When you dispute an item, the bureau and the furnisher (the bank, lender, or collector reporting it) must conduct a reasonable investigation — not a rubber-stamp;
- Correction: Information that is inaccurate or cannot be verified must be fixed or deleted.
Common Errors Worth Fighting
Accounts that belong to someone else or were opened by an identity thief, debts reported after bankruptcy discharge, wrong balances or late payments you never made, accounts re-aged to look newer than they are, “deceased” flags on living consumers, and mixed files where another person's data lands on your report. If an error is costing you credit, housing, employment, or peace of mind, it is worth fighting.
How a Wisconsin FCRA Claim Works
Step one is a proper written dispute — our guide to disputing credit report errors walks through it. If the bureau or furnisher fails to fix the error after a dispute, the FCRA gives you a private right of action. Depending on the case, consumers may recover actual damages (including emotional distress in appropriate cases), statutory and punitive damages for willful violations, and attorney fees — which is why we can handle most FCRA cases at no out-of-pocket cost to you.
Why Wisconsin Consumers Choose Us
Some firms advertising credit report help in Wisconsin are out-of-state practices limited to a single federal district. Attorney Nathan DeLadurantey is Wisconsin-based and admitted in the Eastern District of Wisconsin, the Western District of Wisconsin, and the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals — so we can bring your FCRA case wherever in Wisconsin it belongs. The firm is 100% consumer-side and has been recognized by Super Lawyers and the Wisconsin Law Journal for consumer credit litigation.
What does it cost?
The consultation is free, and FCRA fee-shifting means the defendants typically pay your attorney fees in a successful case. Here is how that works.
What should I bring?
Copies of your credit reports, your dispute letters and any responses, denial letters (credit, housing, employment), and notes about what the errors have cost you.
Talk to a Wisconsin FCRA Attorney
If you disputed an error and it is still on your report, that is exactly when to call. Reach us at 414.377.0515 or contact us online for a free consultation.