Court: Employees May Allege FCRA Misuse Of Credit Report, Not Independent Contractor

A call center sales representative cannot assert claims against his employer for violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin ruled April 12, finding that FCRA protects employees whose employers pull credit reports, not independent contractors (Lamson v. EMS Energy Mktg. Serv. Inc., E.D. Wis.).

According to the court, Phillip Lamson took a job as a sales representative for EMS Energy Marketing Service Inc., selling a telephone service to a list of leads in a call center. Lamson was fired roughly a month after he started when EMS got ...