For two years a US woman tried without success to get mistakes in her credit report fixed. Now a jury has awarded her $18.6 million for her trouble.
Julie Miller’s problems began in 2009 when she was denied credit by a bank based on a credit report by Equifax, ABC News reported.
Her lawyer, Justin Baxter, said the judgment is unprecedented in size.
“I’m not aware of a larger one,” he said.
Ms Miller repeatedly contacted Equifax before eventually received a copy of her report, which, she discovered, contained false identifying information, an incorrect Social Security number, a false birthday and false, derogatory collection accounts attributed to her, ABC News reported.
She was later told her data had become “mixed” with another person’s.
Ms Miller tried eight times to get her report correcting before taking legal action in the Oregon Federal District Court in October 2011.
Mr Baxter said Equifax weren’t even handling Ms Miller’s complaint in house. Instead it was sent to a subcontractor in the Philippines.
He told ABC News the mistakes cost Ms Miller in several ways, meaning she was unable to help her disabled brother or her husband who needed to add a shop onto their family home.
This story originally appeared on news.com.au