Page:Satava v. Lowry.pdf/1

 whether the potential defendant could satisfy a judgment was not a permissible purpose under the statute); see also Duncan, 149 F.3d at 427 (“While a lawsuit occasionally may give rise to a ‘legitimate business need’ for a consumer report … trial preparation generally does not fall within the scope of § 1681b.”). Thus, subsection (a)(4) broadens, not limits, the power of child support enforcement agencies to obtain consumer credit reports.

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, a child support enforcement agency may obtain the consumer credit report of a person owing or potentially owing child support. When requesting a consumer credit report to establish an individual’s capacity to pay support or to determine the appropriate amount of payment, the child support enforcement agency must comply with the certification requirements of 15 U.S.C. § 1681b(a)(4). But when, as in this case, the agency seeks to enforce an already existing order of child support, the certification requirements of § 1681b(a)(4) are inapplicable.

Here, the BFSO properly obtained Hasbun’s consumer credit report to enforce an existing order of child support. In so doing, the BFSO was engaged in the “collection of an account” under 15 U.S.C. § 1681b(a)(3)(A) and therefore had a permissible purpose for obtaining it. The law requires no more.

AFFIRMED.