Luna v. Hansen & Adkins Auto Transport, Inc., 2020 WL 1969409 (9^th Cir. 2020)

Leonard Luna filed this putative class action, alleging a violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”) because his former employer had provided him a FCRA disclosure statement simultaneously with other employment materials and had failed to provide a standalone FCRA authorization. The district court granted summary judgment to the employer, and the Ninth Circuit affirmed, holding that the FCRA disclosure need not be provided at a point in time that is “distinct” from the time when other employment-related documents are provided to an applicant. The Court also held that the disclosure was “clear and conspicuous,” and observed that “applicants, such as big-rig truckers, can be expected to notice a standalone document featuring a bolded, underlined, capital-lettered heading.” Finally, the Court held that the FCRA authorization (as opposed to the disclosure) need not be a standalone document. See also Walker v. Fred Meyer, Inc., 953 F.3d 1082 (9^th Cir. 2020) (employer violated FCRA by including extraneous information in disclosure document, but employee is not entitled to “discuss” the results of a consumer report with the employer before adverse action is taken).