Deverus Included Outdated Information in Background Report, Lawsuit Claims

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Deverus, Inc. is the defendant in a proposed class action that claims the consumer reporting agency furnished background checks containing outdated information in violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).

The plaintiff applied for a job through staffing agency StaffMasters and was rejected based on the content of his background report, the lawsuit says. According to the case, the report, assembled by Deverus partner S2Verify, included data provided by the defendant that predated the report by more than seven years. As explained in the suit:

“In spite of the FCRA’s clear prohibition on including non-conviction information older than seven years on background reports, the report that was sent to StaffMasters included a Chesterfield County, South Carolina criminal charge from 1996, which the prosecutor had formally dropped, as well as a separate criminal charge from 2003, of which [the plaintiff] had been found not guilty.”

Consumer reporting agencies are prohibited from including in background reports adverse information (other than convictions) that are older than seven years, including dismissed charges and arrest records, the case says. The lawsuit claims proposed class members are entitled to statutory damages of between $100 and $1,000 “for each and every one” of the defendant’s alleged violations.