Colorado § 5-18-116 - Consumer's right to file action in court or arbitrate disputes.

§ 5-18-116. Consumer's right to file action in court or arbitrate disputes.

(1) A consumer, protected consumer, or protected consumer's representative may bring an action to enforce any obligation a consumer reporting agency has to a consumer, protected consumer, or protected consumer's representative under this article 18 in any court of competent jurisdiction as provided by the federal "Fair Credit Reporting Act", 15 U.S.C. sec. 1681 et seq., as amended, or submit an enforcement action to binding arbitration, in the manner set forth in the rules of the American Arbitration Association, to determine whether the consumer reporting agency met its obligations under this article 18 after the consumer, protected consumer, or protected consumer's representative has followed, as applicable:

(a) All dispute procedures in section 5-18-110 and has received the notice specified in section 5-18-110 (6);

(b) All of the block procedures in section 5-18-111; or

(c) All of the freeze procedures in section 5-18-112 or 5-18-112.5.

(2) An arbitrator's decision pursuant to this section does not affect the validity of any obligations or debts owed to any party. A successful party to any arbitration proceeding shall be compensated for the costs and attorney fees of the proceeding as determined by the court or arbitration. A consumer, protected consumer, or protected consumer's representative shall not submit more than one action to arbitration against any consumer reporting agency during any one-hundred-twenty-day period.

(3) The results of an arbitration action brought against a consumer reporting agency doing business in this state shall be communicated in a timely manner with all other consumer reporting agencies doing business in this state. If, as a result of an arbitration, a determination is made in favor of the consumer, protected consumer, or protected consumer's representative, any adverse information in the consumer's or protected consumer's file, report, or record shall be blocked, removed, or stricken in a timely manner, or the consumer report or record shall be frozen within five days after receipt of the determination by the consumer reporting agency. If the adverse information is not blocked, removed, or stricken, or the file is not frozen, the consumer, protected consumer, or protected consumer's representative may bring an action against the noncomplying agency pursuant to this section notwithstanding the one-hundred-twenty-day waiting period.

Source: L. 2017: Entire article added with relocations, (HB 17-1238), ch. 260, p. 1130, § 3, effective August 9. L. 2018: Entire section amended, (HB 18-1233), ch. 75, p. 656, § 6, effective January 1, 2019.

Editor's note: This section is similar to former § 12-14.3-107 as it existed prior to 2017.