Saleh Hasbun v. County of Los Angeles Gil Garcetti, District Attorney Wayne D. Doss Experian Information Solutions, Inc., an Ohio Corporation

This appeal presents the novel issue in this circuit of when and how a child support enforcement agency may lawfully obtain the consumer credit report of an individual who has fallen behind in paying court-ordered child support. Plaintiff-appellant Saleh Hasbun, a father owing his ex-wife more than $62,000 in child support, argues that the County of Los Angeles obtained his consumer credit report in violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 16 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq. Wé affirm the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of defendants and hold that child support enforcement agencies need not comply with the certification requirements of 15 U.S.C. § 1681b(a)(4) when seeking to collect court-ordered child support.

I

After Hasbun and his wife divorced in 1985, the Los Angeles County Superior Court ordered Hasbun to pay his ex-wife support for their then 10-year-old son. Hasbun made few — if any — child support payments from 1985 to 1997. In 1997, the Los Angeles County Superior Court ordered and adjudged that Hasbun was in arrears to his ex-wife in the amount of $62,179.82.

Seeking to enforce the 1997 judgment, in May 2001 the Los Angeles County District…