A narrow practice, deep where it counts.
Six practice areas across consumer credit: credit reporting, scoring and underwriting, damages, data breaches, lending regulation, and consumer data.
FCRA Expert Witness for Credit Bureau & Furnisher Data Cases
Credit reporting cases turn on how data moves: what a furnisher reported in Metro 2, how the bureau matched it to a consumer, what happened when the consumer disputed it, and how the furnisher answered the ACDV. We know that chain from every side. We have studied it at scale, including the large-sample studies of credit report accuracy and disputes. We have been retained by bureaus, banks and card issuers, and by consumers and regulators. We also run a consumer reporting agency ourselves. We measure the conduct at issue against the FCRA and against how the industry actually operates.
- ◆Were a consumer reporting agency's procedures reasonable to assure maximum possible accuracy under 15 U.S.C. § 1681e(b)?
- ◆Did a furnisher conduct a reasonable investigation after an ACDV under § 1681s-2(b), and report the result accurately?
- ◆Was a bureau's reinvestigation reasonable under § 1681i, and was disputed information verified, modified, or deleted appropriately?
- ◆Was the reported information actually inaccurate or materially misleading, and was a disputed account flagged as disputed?
Credit Damages Expert Witness
When credit reporting or scoring goes wrong, the question is not only whether harm occurred, but how much — and whether the conduct at issue caused it. We quantify credit-related damages with models grounded in how lenders actually score, price, and approve credit.
- ◆Did the alleged error change the consumer's credit score, and by how much?
- ◆Did it change a credit decision — an approval, a denial, a limit, or a rate?
- ◆What losses, if any, followed from that change, and over what period?
- ◆Is injury common across a proposed class, or does it depend on each consumer's file?
Data Breach Damages Expert Witness
After a breach, the questions are what was exposed, what harm followed, and whether that harm can be traced to this breach rather than to others. We have been retained in data-breach class actions — including as Sony Pictures Entertainment's expert in Corona v. Sony Pictures (C.D. Cal.), brought by former employees after the 2014 hack — bringing two decades of research on consumer data and credit to the damages question.
- ◆What data was exposed, and what does that type of data actually enable — new-account fraud, account takeover, or neither?
- ◆Can alleged fraud or credit harm be traced to this breach, given the many prior breaches affecting the same consumers?
- ◆Did the breach affect credit reports or scores, and if so, how?
- ◆What do credit monitoring, freezes, and fraud alerts cost, and what mitigation has already been provided?
Credit Industry & Policy Expert Witness
Some matters are less about a specific report or score and more about how the credit ecosystem operates: what is standard practice, what regulators expect, how new data or models should be used, and how policy affects inclusion and risk. We bring decades of work at that system level — including research that Congress, regulators, and courts have relied on.
- ◆Design and use of credit scores in underwriting and account management.
- ◆Adoption and governance of alternative data, including utility, telecom, and rental payment data.
- ◆Credit bureau and data-provider business models and incentives.
- ◆The evolution of fair credit reporting law and related regulation, including FACTA.
Quantitative Research & Damages Modeling
Some matters require bespoke empirical work: exploring large datasets, running simulations, or building damages models grounded in how credit markets actually function. We bring the same rigor trusted by agencies and development institutions, and our models are transparent, replicable, and built to be examined — not just asserted.
- ◆Estimating how many consumers would be affected by a proposed or alleged practice.
- ◆Modeling score or approval changes under different reporting regimes.
- ◆Analyzing patterns that may suggest disparate impact or redlining.
- ◆Building transparent damages models aligned with the legal theories at issue.
Settlement & Strategic Consulting
Outside of testimony, counsel and institutions retain us for early, confidential reads on a matter and for advice on products, policies, and strategies that rely on credit data — aligned with best practices and regulatory expectations.
- ◆Settlement-fairness analysis.
- ◆Case selection and early case assessment.
- ◆Product, policy, and compliance design involving credit data.
Bring us in early.
The most consequential credit matters turn on how scores and reports actually work. Tell us about yours.
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