Legal Issues: Suing for Life's Frustrations: Supreme Court Says Maybe

Abstract

Life can get frustrating sometimes. Losing a glove on a cold winter day, or opting not to bring an umbrella because the forecast said it would be dry – and it wasn’t – or as has been in the news lately, waiting for hours to clear security at the airport, are all such events that can make you see red. Some events go beyond frustrating and become worrisome. Being told that you might be the victim of a data breech and knowing that you’ll need to constantly worry if identity theft might be the result. It can feel even more frustrating or worrisome when the you know that if the other party had a responsibility to act in a certain way or take certain steps and failed to do so, resulting in the frustration. Even if nothing really bad happens, the frustration remains and can be heightened by knowing that it’s that other party’s fault.

That happened to Thomas Robins. He learned about a report created by the “people search engine” Spokeo.com that that contained inaccurate information about himself. Interestingly, the inaccurate information wasn’t harmful in the sense that it generally ascribed positive attributes to Mr. Robins, describing him as married, employed, with a graduate degree and is “relatively affluent.” None of this information turned out to be correct. While most would find these inaccuracies either neutral or even amusing, Mr. Robins was concerned that they might impact his then ongoing job hunt – by suggesting to prospective employers that he was already employed with a high salary – or could impact his credit.

Keywords: Data Breech, Consumer Protection, Fraud, Credit, Litigation