The standard requires reasonable rather than perfect procedures. Liability attaches where a report was inaccurate and the agency failed to follow reasonable procedures, not merely because an error occurred.
Legal inaccuracy claims are treated differently by circuit.
Alternative Names:
Maximum Possible Accuracy|FCRA Accuracy Procedures
Why it Matters?
Inaccuracy alone does not establish liability, since the claim requires that reasonable procedures were absent, and an agency with sound matching logic and dispute processes may report an error without liability. Whether a report can be inaccurate as a matter of law rather than fact divides the circuits, with several holding that agencies need not resolve legal disputes about debt validity. That division makes forum consequential.
Frequently Confused with
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
Does an inaccurate report establish liability?
What divides the circuits?
