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Equifax small claim claim

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Hopkins21

Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? MD , PA, DE

Hi. I really hate equifax and I am going to sue them in small claims for the data breach.

They forces us to becone "customers", sell our data to 3rd parties, and then they let our data be stolen and waits to tell us while their executives dump stock.

I am thinking I will sue in PA small claims court. I reside in Maryland but still have a PA license.

My questions:

1.

I can sue in either PA, MD, or DE.

I am leaning towards PA because i believe you only need to put the company name as the plantif and use their offical mailing address within the state as the serving address? Am I correct ?

2.

I could not find an actual equifax mailing address in PA after a google search. Any help finding the address to serve them at would be greatly appreciated.

3.

I would consider suing in DE because I hear PA has an appeals process which can complicate things. Anyone know the ease of serving a large company in DE? Similar format to PA.

4.

Smugly chastise me if you want (their is a lot of this type of thing on this website lol) but there is little harm in trying and having a few minutes infront of a judge and scummy company to hear me out even if I "lose" I feel like I "win".

Thanks in advance for any feedback
 


CTU

Meddlesome Priestess
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? MD , PA, DE

Hi. I really hate equifax and I am going to sue them in small claims for the data breach.

They forces us to becone "customers", sell our data to 3rd parties, and then they let our data be stolen and waits to tell us while their executives dump stock.

I am thinking I will sue in PA small claims court. I reside in Maryland but still have a PA license.

My questions:

1.

I can sue in either PA, MD, or DE.

I am leaning towards PA because i believe you only need to put the company name as the plantif and use their offical mailing address within the state as the serving address? Am I correct ?

2.

I could not find an actual equifax mailing address in PA after a google search. Any help finding the address to serve them at would be greatly appreciated.

3.

I would consider suing in DE because I hear PA has an appeals process which can complicate things. Anyone know the ease of serving a large company in DE? Similar format to PA.

4.

Smugly chastise me if you want (their is a lot of this type of thing on this website lol) but there is little harm in trying and having a few minutes infront of a judge and scummy company to hear me out even if I "lose" I feel like I "win".

Thanks in advance for any feedback
You have an ... interesting ... post history.

(This is more of a PSA for others, than anything else)
 

quincy

Senior Member
I'm going to come to your house and do a slip and fall
Please be pleasant, Hopkins.

You can go over your plans to sue Equifax with an attorney in your area. The attorney you see can go over the pros and cons of filing in the states you mention.

If you plan to pursue a private cause of action against Equifax - or if you think you might want to become a member of a class action suit against this credit reporting agency - you might not want to agree to the free credit check program offered by Equifax - at least not without reading the terms of the agreement carefully. There is a problematic clause that can have consumers signing away their rights - and they might regret doing so.
 
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FlyingRon

Senior Member
Equifax is retreating from requiring people to waive class action rights to get the credit monitoring. They CLAIM it was an error on their part to put that in this time, but frankly, I don't trust anything they say at this point. Everything they appear to have put up subsequent to the breach has been nothing but smoke and mirrors (people found that the "you might have" and "You have not" been affected determination on their yields random results, and signing up for monitoring issues a deterministic PIN which is yet another security failure). Obviously, despite having known about this for months and long enough to conduct insider trades before the stock tanked, they've not much thought out how they're rolling things out to the public.
 

quincy

Senior Member
I think the best someone can hope for at this point is that their credit is so lousy that no one wants to, or can, use it for anything. :D
 

Taxing Matters

Overtaxed Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? MD , PA, DE

Hi. I really hate equifax and I am going to sue them in small claims for the data breach.
You may want to rethink that idea. Unless you (1) have evidence that your data was part of the breach; (2) can prove that the information was misused as a result of the breach and (3) have provable damages from it you will lose. And if you sue and lose and then find out later that you did suffer damages from the data breach, you may end up being unable to sue for that because you get just one chance to sue and if you lose the first time you don’t get to come back and do it again. The legal principle involved here is res judicata. So suing now just to get a little revenge might cost you the opportunity to sue for actual harm later when it would really matter. Note, too, that suing now would preclude you from benefiting from any class action lawsuit that may be litigated over this breach.
 

quincy

Senior Member
Right. At this point - although the breach itself can be said to have caused harm to those whose personal identifying information has been illegally accessed - it is too early to do anything but CONSIDER a lawsuit against Equifax.
 

Hopkins21

Member
Thank you for the feedback.

1. If I did want to file in PA how would i find the mailing address for equifax?

Thanks
 

MichaelRBrya

Junior Member
People start thinking that the best thing that someone can hope for at this point is that their credit card is so very bad that anyone would ever be using it for anything.
 

Hopkins21

Member
You would find this information via the PA Secretary of State's office.

https://www.corporations.pa.gov/search/corpsearch

The same goes for any state or company.
Thank you. One more question.

THe website lists their PA address as " c/o the prentice hall corporation systems inc dauphin"


From my research i believe this is an address for a "COMMERCIAL REGISTERED OFFICE PROVIDERS"

http://www.dos.pa.gov/BusinessCharities/Business/Resources/Pages/Commercial-Registered-Office-Providers.aspx

"
Under Pennsylvania law (15 P.S. Sec. 109), entities required to provide a registered office address in any document filed in the Department of State may enter into a contract for the services of a Commercial Registered Office Provider(CROP), and may list the name of the CROP in lieu of providing a registered office address. This option is also available for any corporation or association that does not have a physical location or mailing address in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Listing a CROP without having entered into a contract to acquire the services of that CROP could subject a filer to civil and criminal penalties. Fictitious Name registrations may not use a CROP. "

I found the following complete address for them:

Prentice-Hall Corporation System, Inc.
c/o The Prentice-Hall Corporation System, Inc.
2595 Interstate Drive, Suite 103
Harrisburg, PA 17110
800-622-2300

Would i serve this address, or the home HQ for Equifax in Georgia?

Thank you
 

PayrollHRGuy

Senior Member
You would serve the registered office that is listed on the Sec of State's listing I posted for you. That is exactly what it is for.
 

Hopkins21

Member
Honestly I could not tell if it was the "Prentance Hall" address or the Atlanta Georgia address

Business Entity Details
Officers
Name EQUIFAX CREDIT INFORMATION SERVICES, INC.
Entity Number 745993
Entity Type Business Corporation
Status Active
Citizenship Foreign
Entity Creation Date 05/28/1982
Effective Date 05/28/1982
State Of Inc GA
Address C/O THE PRENTICE-HALL CORPORATION SYSTEM, INC. Dauphin
Name E D DEVANEY JR
Title SECRETARY
Address 1550 PEACHTREE ST NW ATLANTA GA 30309
 

PayrollHRGuy

Senior Member
I have to agree that PA's Sec State list is not clear on the issue. Where is says...

C/O THE PRENTICE-HALL CORPORATION SYSTEM, INC. Dauphin

Should be where the address is.
 

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