Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.
This year he will be visiting Angela, an Orlando woman, with an extra special gift - $2.9 million - from Equifax, one of the big three credit reporting agencies.
Angela, a medical transcription worker, tried for over a decade to have erroneous information deleted from her credit file. Seems Equifax repeatedly confused her credit information with that of a deadbeat who had a similar name. Despite her continued attempts to dispute the information in her credit report, Equifax kept passing along the wrong information.
This led to Angela's inability to get student loans, credit cards, and even ATM cards. She couldn't apply for a mortgage. She finally sued in 2003.
The jury apparently thought Equifax deserved more than just a slap on the hand. They decided that Equifax must pay her $219,000 in actual damages and $2.7 million in punitive damages for "negligent violation of federal credit-reporting laws." (Two other companies named in the suit - Experian and American Recovery Systems - opted to settle the case out of court.)
According to one expert who testified in the trial, "people have been victimized by the companies' streamlined, automated process of 'investigating' alleged credit-file errors... the process is set up to save money and boost profits rather than protect consumers."
I guess Santa will be giving Equifax a great big lump of coal this year.
