A federal judge in Illinois declined to reconsider Experian’s summary judgment request, concluding the court was allowed to revisit the parties’ Fair Credit Reporting Act lawsuit.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Virginia M. Kendall of the Northern District of Illinois denied a motion by Experian Information Solutions to reconsider a March order denying the defendant’s summary judgment motion. Kendall concluded Experian failed to show that there wasn’t a genuine dispute of material fact regarding whether Experian acted willfully in failing to include a statement of dispute in Jeffrey Chaitoff’s credit file. Experian argued that the court was barred from readdressing whether its conduct was willful or not under the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2007 ruling in Safeco Insurance Co. of America v. Burr, in which the court determined that willful violations under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) also include those committed in reckless disregard for the law.