November

A class action lawsuit alleging improper background checks on job applicants was filed in federal court in California against the retail giant Kohl's Department Stores Inc. Lead plaintiff, Kayonie Coleman, alleges in her class action lawsuit that Kohl's conducted illegal background checks on her in October 2012 and June 2013, prior to employment with the department store. She alleges Kohl's used ambiguous and misleading language to obtain credit reports from a class of job applicants in violation of the FCRA. Kohl's joins yet even more retailers who have been hit with FRCA class actions recently, including Whole Foods Market Inc., Dollar General Corp, and Publix Super Markets.

"World-renowned poker expert Kenny Rogers once sagely advised, ""You've got to know when to hold 'em. Know when to fold 'em. Know when to walk away"".

In the EEOC v. Freeman opinion, the court explained the company, Freeman, held the royal flush and the EEOC held nothing. Continuing the analogy throughout the introduction, the court found that, ""Like the unwise gambler, it did so at its peril. Because the EEOC insisted on playing a hand it could not win, it is liable for Freeman's reasonable attorneys' fees."" Here, the court found it was unreasonable for the EEOC to continue its investigation with the lack of proper analysis demonstrating disparate analysis and, instead, choosing to rely on flawed investigative reports. Ultimately, the court awarded over $938,000 in attorneys' fees to Freeman."

"A woman who applied for a job at Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. has filed a putative class action lawsuit against the national restaurant chain. According to the class action lawsuit, Chipotle has violated the FCRA in their application documents by asking applicants to sign their consent for background checks embedded and essentially ""hidden"" within a general consent agreement. According to the FCRA class action lawsuit, Chipotle's disclosure was surrounded by other language pertaining to additional information Mejia was required to consent to on the application. FCRA requires that the disclosure form be solely for purposes of disclosure and not ""encumbered by any other information ... in order to prevent consumers from being distracted by other information side-by-side with the disclosure."""