In Connor v. First Student, Inc., the Court of Appeal held that the California’s Investigative Consumer Reporting Agencies Act (ICRAA) is not unconstitutionally vague. The ICRAA and the Consumer Credit Reporting Agencies Act (CCRAA) regulate agencies that gather information on consumers to provide to employers, landlords, and others for use by those persons in making employment, rental, and other decisions. The ICRAA governs agencies (and those to whom it provides information) with regard to investigative consumer reports, i.e., reports containing information on a consumer’s character, general reputation, personal characteristics, or mode of living. Both acts impose obligations on the agencies regarding disclosure to consumers when the agencies furnish reports, and limit when and to whom those reports may be furnished. The obligations and limitations, however, are different for each act, as are the remedies for violations of the act; generally, the ICRAA imposes greater obligations and stricter limitations, and allows greater remedies.

The case dealt with background checks made on employees of defendants. Eileen Connor’s lawsuit against First alleging violations of the ICRAA was dismissed after the trial court granted First’s motion for summary judgment based upon the holding of Ortiz v. Lyon Management Group, Inc. (2007) 157 Cal.App.4th 604 (Ortiz). In Ortiz, the appellate court held that the ICRAA was unconstitutionally vague as applied to tenant screening reports containing unlawful detainer information because unlawful detainer information relates to both creditworthiness and character. The Court of Appeals in this case stated it disagreed with the analysis in Ortiz. It held that there is nothing in either the ICRAA or the CCRAA that precludes application of both acts to information that relates to both character and creditworthiness. Therefore, it concluded that the ICRAA was not unconstitutionally vague as applied to such information. Accordingly, it reversed the summary judgment.

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