This case is about whether letters Finance America sent to class members met the requirements of “firm offers of credit” under a federal law known as the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Finance America sent millions of letters to homeowners asking them to contact Finance America about applying for a new home loan. The names and addresses for those letters were obtained from various credit bureaus through a process called “pre-screening”, by which Finance America was able to obtain limited information about class members, typically name and address, on the condition that it make each class member identified in the pre-screening a firm offer of credit.

Plaintiff Clay Fisher, the person who filed the lawsuit (the Class Plaintiff), received a letter from Finance America inviting him to inquire about a loan. He claims that Finance America violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act, a federal law governing circumstances in which prospective lenders may obtain limited information about potential customers, because it should not get that information about class members unless it makes them firm offers of credit, with specific information about the terms of the prospective loans.

What the phrase “firm offer of credit” means is one of the matters in dispute in this case. Finance America denies that the law required that the letters include detailed specific information about the loans that it made available to prospective customers and that its letters otherwise complied with the law. Mr. Fisher believes that Finance America’s letters were mere advertisements that did not comply with the law, and that Finance America improperly obtained class members’ names and addresses after the credit bureaus pre-screened class members’ confidential credit information to create a list of letter recipients.

The parties have agreed to settle the lawsuit. Anyone who received a letter from Finance America at any time between March 2, 2003 and December 18, 2006 is eligible to receive settlement benefits, and unless he or she opts out of the settlement will be bound by the releases and other terms as discussed in more detail below.

Members of the class in this case will be able to apply for a Settlement Loan if and when the Court decides that the settlement is fair, adequate and reasonable and the settlement becomes effective. If you would like to be contacted if and when Settlement Loans become available, you can tell us here how you would like us to contact you (telephone, email or mail) after the settlement goes into effect.