Plaintiff Dennis Goyette has initiated three separate class action lawsuits against major credit reporting agencies TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian. The complaints, filed in Florida federal court, allege that the bureaus failed to accurately report the status of a joint credit account that was included in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy discharge.
Goyette and his wife, Peggy Goyette, filed for joint Chapter 7 bankruptcy on December 26, 2024. The court granted the discharge on April 8, 2025, which included an account held with Achieva Credit Union.
According to the legal filings, the Goyettes discovered that all three credit reporting agencies continued to list the Achieva account as past due on their consumer reports, rather than marking it as discharged.
The complaints note a discrepancy in how the account was reported across the two spouses' files. While the account appeared correctly as discharged on Peggy Goyette’s reports with each agency, Dennis Goyette’s reports showed the account as delinquent. The complaint against Experian specifically alleges that the agency listed the account as closed at the consumer’s request.
The lawsuits argue that this inconsistency demonstrates a lack of adequate policies to prevent logically inaccurate information from appearing on consumer files.
Goyette claims the agencies violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act by failing to maintain reasonable procedures for ensuring the accuracy of consumer reports, particularly regarding joint accounts associated with joint bankruptcy filings. He asserts that the inaccurate reporting unfairly lowered his credit score and caused him embarrassment, frustration, emotional distress, and anxiety whenever his credit was reviewed.
The lawsuits seek to represent a nationwide class of consumers who, within two years of the filing, had a joint account reported by one of the agencies as not discharged in bankruptcy, while the same account was correctly reported as discharged on the other joint accountholder’s report.
