My son and I have same first, middle, and last names. I found in his papers a correspondence from a law firm near Chicago sent to him at his place of employment about court judgements concerning me. They were faxed and on some used work order paper lying around the shop. My son is an auto mechanic. I have no objection to my son seeing this but I have a right to not have my information sent to anyone who requests it. No one asked me if they could fax information about me with my social security number in the information.
Could I take action against the law office under the "Fair Credit Reporting Act"?
Isn't my personal information secure in a law office?

Joe

If this was a honest mistake, than you can not sue, but you need to fax the paper back to the lawyer from the same fax it was sent to to show them they erred. If they don't correct the mistake and send them directly to you, you would probably have a case.

Read ths article here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/27/AR2005072702391.html

I totally agree with Mr.Yet. Working in the legal field, as a secretary, for more than 10 years, people with the same name, and actually not related (believe it or not), have come across my desk.

It was always our advice to make a copy of the paperwork and send it back to the particular attorney with a letter advising of the mistake. This letter MUST be sent by Certified Mail Return Receipt Requested. That way if it ever happens again, you have proof that they have been notified of the mistake and at that point you can make use of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

They are free from liability if they acted in good faith believing this person with the same name to be you.

I even got a garnishment this last year on my pay, they served my company legal papers and deducted money from my check for 6 weeks until I got it cleared it, turned out it was someone else with the same first initial of my name and same last name. (middle name and social different of course)
Just plain sloppy work, but it was ruled that they acted in "good faith" in an attempt to serve the papers correctly

Your answers wouldn't be in the Fair Credit Reporting Act... they would be in the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

I don't know if you have a case or not, but if you did, that is where you would want to look.

BTW, you can sue for anything you want... its just whether you will win ;)

This was no error. The fax started with Mr. Josph M----Jr. Here is the information you requested about Josph M------Sr. Social security number
Xxx xx xxxx. It gave information about my judgement date, amount and court case number.

I knew nothing about this until I helped my son move and organize his papers.

Yeah, that doesn't sound right at all

What did you son say about it??

He said he requested it because it might have been on his credit report. He had that problem in the past, with my credit on his report.
Now they have him living in my home and our latest address is a p.o. box.
I also found info about his ex-wife as living here too. They never did. WOW

If he was concerned it was on his credit, he should have goten a credit report. Besides, if it WAS on his credit, he can only get it off by contacting the credit bureaus. Im pretty sure that doesn't give this company the right to send your private info to whoever asks for it.

Hello baja:

Not surprisingly, I have a little different take on the matter.

The fact that you have judgments against you is public information. Unless they revealed facts about the lawsuit, which I’ll bet they didn’t, this information is available to anyone. Additionally, it may very well be this law firms job to collect on those judgments. This communication, then, could be seen as furtherance of their duties. Therefore, I suggest this law firm did nothing improper.

I also suggest that your son has a legitimate interest in this issue, as his credit is absolutely at risk. I fault him for leaving the faxs lying around where they were available for viewing. I fault you for looking through his stuff. I fault the both of you for not talking about it...

excon