Verifications, Inc., a Minneapolis-based employment background screening company, agreed in February 2013 to pay approximately $3.8 million to settle a Fair Credit Reporting Act class action alleging it failed to properly notify consumers about the background checks it ran for employers. A separate line of litigation tied the company to background reports that matched criminal records to the wrong people.
The $3.8 Million FCRA Settlement
The class action, Henderson v. Verifications Incorporated, Case No. 3:11-cv-00514, was filed in 2011 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia before Judge Robert E. Payne. The complaint alleged that Verifications, Inc. did not properly notify consumers when it conducted background checks on behalf of employers, a notification obligation that sits at the core of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.1Law360. Henderson v. Verifications Incorporated
In February 2013, the company agreed to pay approximately $3.8 million to resolve the putative class action.1Law360. Henderson v. Verifications Incorporated
Mismatched Criminal Records and the CoreLogic Litigation
Verifications, Inc. also appears in a related case over the accuracy of criminal data pulled from third-party databases. In Henderson v. CoreLogic National Background Data, LLC, 178 F. Supp. 3d 320 (E.D. Va. 2016), plaintiff Tyrone Henderson alleged he lost a job offer after Verifications, Inc. searched the “Multistate Database” and produced a report that included felony convictions belonging to a different person who happened to share his name and date of birth.2National Consumer Law Center. Broken Records Redux
Henderson and a second plaintiff, James O. Hines Jr., filed a broader class action, Henderson et al. v. CoreLogic Inc., et al., Case No. 12-cv-00097, in the Eastern District of Virginia. They alleged the defendants violated the FCRA by failing to use Social Security numbers to verify data, producing incorrect matches between criminal records and the wrong consumers. The plaintiffs moved for class certification in January 2014, with a proposed national class as large as 10 million consumers. Verifications, Inc. and ADP Screening were identified as resellers of the background data produced by the defendants, rather than as defendants in that class action themselves.3Top Class Actions. Job Applicants Want False Background Check Class Action Certified
If Your Verifications, Inc. Report Contains Errors
Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, consumer reporting agencies like Verifications, Inc. must report information accurately, conduct a reasonable investigation when a consumer disputes information, and clearly mark any disputed item on a report. If you believe a Verifications, Inc. report contains errors, you can submit a written dispute to the company at its headquarters, 6900 Wedgwood Road N, Suite 120, Minneapolis, MN 55109.4Pre-Employment Directory. Find a Background Screening Company Minnesota
The kinds of errors that drove the Henderson litigation — missing notice, and criminal records matched by name and date of birth alone — are the same kinds of problems a written dispute is meant to force the agency to investigate and correct.