Brown v. Mortensen

Opinion

WERDEGAR, J.

In this case we address the remedies available to a patient when a debt collector, acting on behalf of a medical professional, is asserted to have illegally disclosed confidential patient medical information to various consumer reporting agencies in the course of a dispute over an alleged medical debt.

Individuals, as patients, have a substantial interest in the privacy of their medical information. (Hill v. National Collegiate Athletic Assn. (1994) 7 Cal.4th 1, 41 [26 Cal.Rptr.2d 834, 865 P.2d 633].) As consumers, they have substantial interests as well in the privacy and…