Credit Reporting Expert’s Testimony on Emotional Harm Excluded
Posted on November 6, 2025 by Expert Witness Profiler
This case involves alleged violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The Plaintiff, Fabian Huizar, claims that Experian Information Solutions repeatedly reported inaccurate information on his credit report relating to a car loan that was the subject of a judgment rendered in state court. Huizar hired experts, Douglas Hollon and Evan Hendricks to help him prove his case, and Experian filed a motion to exclude or limit their testimony.
Consumer Credit Expert Witness
Douglas A. Hollon holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Finance. He has received FCRA certifications from the Consumer Data Industry Association, and he has earned additional certifications.
He has worked in the consumer finance reporting industry since 2005, when he began working for Experian. His work for Experian spanned 14 years from 2005 through 2019 in the National Consumer Assistance Center—Experian’s main dispute processing center—where he helped consumers “resolve their issues” and “[p]rovid[ed] leadership advice to current supervisors.”
He handled “escalated credit report disputes” submitted on consumers’ behalf by attorneys and government entities. He has also received “specialized training involving fraud (identity theft) disputes” and testified on Experian’s behalf as a Rule 30(b)(6) witness. In addition to his experience at Experian, he has studied “regulatory agency publications, case law, deposition transcripts, company manuals or publications, and other related documents,” contributing to his “extensive knowledge of other Consumer Reporting Agencies’ (CRAs) and Data Furnishers’ credit dispute operations.” Since 2020, Hollon has been the owner of Credit Experts of North Texas, LLC. Over the course of his career, he has “assisted tens of thousands of customers.”
Credit Reporting Expert Witness
Evan D. Hendricks has worked in the field of data privacy and credit reporting for over forty years. He was the Editor and Publisher of Privacy Times from 1981-2013.
He has consulted on FCRA cases for over 30 years and has served as an expert witness well over 100 times. Hendricks has testified before Congress and the Federal Trade Commission dozens of times on issues relating to credit reporting and the importance of credit scores. He is the author of a book on how credit scores work and credit reports work.
Discussion by the Court
A. Douglas Hollon
First, Experian stated that Hollon is unqualified to provide his opinion on the correct interpretation of the Tippecanoe Circuit Court orders which are the subject of this litigation. The Court held that Hollon’s decade-plus experience working on credit reporting at Experian qualifies him to opine on how Experian would have read and understood the legal orders as well as how reporting should have been conducted following a review of the orders.
Experian next argued that Hollon is unqualified to opine on whether Experian’s processes and procedures resulted in inaccurate, damaging information remaining in Huizar’s Experian file. Because the jury can assess Huizar’s own damages testimony and Hollon adds no specialized knowledge or experience related to damages, he will not be allowed to provide expert testimony on Huizar’s damages, emotional or otherwise. Accordingly, any statements concerning damages, emotional or otherwise, included in Hollon’s report will not be considered by the Court.
Experian’s motion to exclude also attacked Hollon’s methodology and argued that the Hollon Report “totally failed to outline any reliable principles or methods.” However, Hollon drew on his decade of experience working on credit reporting at Experian to review the materials in this case and form an expert opinion on Experian’s alleged actions. Although his methodology was not highly technical, the Court considered it reliable for forming an expert opinion.
B. Evan Hendricks
Experian argued that Hendricks is unqualified to provide expert opinion on several topics for which he opined. First, Experian argued that, like Hollon, Hendricks was unqualified to provide his opinion regarding how Experian should have interpreted the Tippecanoe Circuit Court orders.
However, the Court held that Hendricks’ extensive knowledge of credit reporting and credit reporting agencies will be helpful to the trier of fact. And while Experian is correct that Hendricks does not have a specialized background in law, he is qualified to opine as to how Experian, a consumer reporting agency, should have viewed the legal orders at issue in this case.
Hendricks’ experience and expertise also qualify him to provide his opinion on how Experian’s reporting would have impacted Huizar. In 2003, Hendricks provided testimony to the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions & Consumer Credit regarding “The Role of FCRA in the Credit Granting Process.”
While Hendricks will be allowed to offer his opinion on how creditors would have viewed Experian’s reporting, he will be prohibited from offering opinions on any emotional or psychological harm suffered by Huizar.
As for the reliability of Hendricks’ methodology, the Court found Hendricks’ methodology of applying his experience to the facts and evidence reliable. However, Hendricks was not permitted to provide testimony about prior cases, administrative actions, and consent decrees because an information dump from long ago cases will more likely confuse the jury than
provide helpful information relevant to this case.
Finally, Experian argued that Hendricks should be precluded from testifying about Experian’s knowledge, motivations, intentions, objective state of mind, and subjective beliefs. As the parties agreed that Hendricks should not testify as to the CRAs’ state of mind, Hendricks will not be permitted to provide testimony on that topic.
Held
The Court granted in part and denied in part Experian’s motion to exclude or limit the testimony of Plaintiff’s expert witnesses, Douglas Hollon and Evan Hendricks.
Key Takeaway:
When a qualified expert uses their expertise and experience to arrive at an opinion based on an assumed set of relevant facts, that is a reliable methodology. An expert’s reliance upon his or her experience to assess the relevant documents has been repeatedly viewed as a reliable methodology in various settings.
Case Details:
| Case Caption: | Huizar V. Experian Information Solutions Inc. |
| Docket Number: | 4:22cv85 |
| Court Name: | United States District Court, Indiana Northern |
| Order Date: | November 05, 2025 |
