Consumer Disputes Pursuant to the FCRA
Under the federal Fair Chance Reporting Act, Consumers have the right to file a dispute with a consumer reporting agency (or "CRA"), such as GHRR, for any item(s) of information contained within their consumer report (the background check report) that the consumer believes to be inaccurate and/or incomplete.[i]
CRAs must handle disputes free of charge. Once a dispute is filed, a notification is sent to the client, consumer, and the furnisher of the information, if applicable, and any documentation the consumer wishes to provide is gathered and considered. GHRR has thirty calendar days after the dispute is received to perform a reasonable reinvestigation of the originally reported information. If any new information relevant to the dispute is provided by the consumer during the course of the reinvestigation, the dispute may remain open for an additional fifteen calendar days. During this time, the client’s adverse action process should be paused to allow for the reinvestigation to be completed.
Once the reinvestigation is complete, the results of the reinvestigation, updated copy of the report (if applicable) and any state and federal summaries of rights are sent to the consumer via US Mail, or if authorized, via email. If the disputed information cannot be verified within the thirty-day time period, it must be deleted from the report. The client is notified of the results of the reinvestigation and may log in to the system to view the updated report, if applicable.
Consumers have the right to place a brief statement on their reports if the reinvestigation does not resolve the dispute. This statement will appear on the disputed report as well as any subsequent reports where the disputed information appears. Clients are encouraged to consider the results of the reinvestigation as well as any statement the consumer submits when making employment decisions. If information has been updated or deleted as a result of the reinvestigation, only the amended report should be considered.
Consumers may visit https://ghrr.com/disputes for information about how to initiate a dispute with GHRR.
[i] The Fair Credit Reporting Act (or the “FCRA”) is a federal law that was primarily designed to protect the privacy of consumer information and to require consumer reporting agencies to adopt reasonable procedures for meeting the needs of commerce in a manner that is fair to consumers regarding the confidentiality, accuracy, relevancy, and proper utilization of their information
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