A Summary of Your Rights Under New Jersey’s Fair Credit Reporting Act

(NEW JERSEY APPLICANTS ONLY)

 

Under the New Jersey Fair Credit Reporting Act (NJFCRA or the “Act”), an employer, before taking adverse employment action, is required to provide the applicant or employee with a summary of their rights under the Act with respect to consumer reports or investigative consumer reports obtained for employment purposes from a consumer reporting agency (CRA). This Summary is intended to serve that purpose.

 

You can find the complete text of the NJCRA, N.J. Stat. §§56:11-29 – 56:11-41, at the New Jersey State Legislature’s web site (http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/). You may have additional rights under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. 1681-1681u, which is available on the Internet at the Federal Trade Commission’s website (http://www.ftc.gov).

​

• You must consent to the procurement for employment purposes of a report about you. Before an employer can obtain a report about you from a CRA, the employer must provide you with notice that it will request the report and obtain your consent to that request. A CRA may not give out information about you to your employer, or prospective employer, without your written consent.

​

• You must be told if information in your file has been used against you for employment purposes. An employer who uses information from a consumer or investigative consumer report to take action against you – such as denying an application for employment or terminating employment – must tell you that its decision is based in whole or in part on the report. The employer also must provide you with a description of your rights under the NJCRA and a reasonable opportunity to dispute with the CRA any information on which the employer relied.

​

• You can find out what is in your file. At your request, a CRA must give you the information in your file and a list of everyone who has recently requested your file. These disclosures may be made in person, over the telephone or by any other reasonable method available to the CRA.

 

• You can dispute inaccurate information with the CRA. If you tell a CRA that your file contains inaccurate information, the CRA must reinvestigate the disputed items, free of charge, within 30 days, unless the CRA determines that the dispute is frivolous or irrelevant. The CRA must give you a written report of the investigation. If the CRA’s investigation does not resolve the dispute, you may add a brief statement to your file. If an item is deleted or a dispute statement is filed, you may ask that anyone who has recently received your report be notified of the change.

 

• Inaccurate information must be corrected or deleted. A CRA must remove or correct inaccurate or unverified information from its files within 30 days after you dispute it. If your dispute results in any change to your report, the CRA cannot reinsert into your file a disputed item unless the information source verifies its accuracy and completeness. In addition, the CRA  must give you a written notice telling you it has reinserted the item. The notice must include the business name and address.

 

• You may seek damages from violators. If a CRA, a user or (in some cases) a provider of CRA data violates the NJFCRA, you may sue them in state court.

​

-End of NJ Law Notice-

 

Updated: January 1, 2024