Rosales v. Lexington Law Firm

Rosales vs. Lexington Law Firm (U.S. District Court, District of Nebraska, Case No. 8:17-cv-00087)

In a class action complaint, Lemberg Law is representing Eugene Rosales, who is suing Lexington Law Firm for alleged violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The complaint alleges that Lexington Law Firm texted Mr. Rosales’ cell phone without his consent and obtained his credit report information for unlawful purposes.

Lexington Law is a law firm offering credit repair services to consumers. The complaint outlines that, in order to market its credit repair services, Lexington Law set up a system whereby it receives a notice when certain consumers’ credit reports are queried. When Lexington Law receives a notification, it sends the consumer an automated text message offering its services.

The complaint alleges that the consumers have not agreed to obtain credit repair services from Lexington Law. Moreover, it alleges that consumers such as Mr. Rosales have not agreed to allow Lexington Law to receive their credit report information, which is a violation of the FCRA, and have not provided Lexington Law with their cell phone number or their written consent to autodial them, which is a violation of the TCPA.

He subscribes to an Experian credit monitoring program, and so is aware of credit report activity. It appears that, each time there was a hard inquiry on his credit report or a negative report on an individual account, Lexington Law would send a text two days later. One text message said, “EUGENE, it’s Alycia with Lexington Law. Frustrated with your credit score? Let us help, and save $25. Call me at 855-382-9303. Txt STOP to end texts”.

Experian markets a product to debt collectors called “Collection Triggers,” which allows debt collectors to receive notifications about events on consumers’ credit reports. The FCRA permits access to consumer credit reports for certain specified purposes. Debt collection is a permissible purpose, but credit repair marketing is not.

The proposed class of people represented are those in the U.S. who, between March 20, 2013 and March, 2017, received at least one unauthorized text message from Lexington Law Firm in which Lexington Law marketed its credit repair services.