December 8, 2022

For years, the Hertz car rental company falsely accused hundreds of innocent customers of stealing its vehicles — accusations that resulted in arrests, felony charges and jail time for some. Via NPR:

Now, the company will pay $168 million to settle those claims, Hertz announced Monday.

In total, the settlement will cover 364 people falsely accused of car theft. In a statement, the company said the number represents "more than 95%" of such claims.

The stories are shockingly bad:

One Hertz customer was driving her rental car in Chicago when she got a flat tire, and she called Hertz to have the car towed, court records state. Months later, she was pulled over for wearing a seatbelt incorrectly when police informed her she had a warrant for her arrest; she was jailed for more than 30 days, she said in a lawsuit.

Another customer in Florida extended her Hertz rental four times — but the car was reported stolen before the end of the extension period in spite of text message communications with a Hertz employee confirming her plans to return it, court records show. She was jailed for 37 days, separated from her two children and missing her nursing school graduation, the suit said.

And a Mississippi man spent more than 6 months in jail after Hertz reported his rental car stolen; he had returned it and paid in full, but the company had failed to inform prosecutors, he said in his suit. He missed a hearing date and was incarcerated for months, the suit states.

Several people filed lawsuits over employment opportunities they lost over pending felony charges. Others said they were arrested at gunpoint.

Can you help us out?

For nearly 20 years we have been exposing Washington lies and untangling media deceit, but now Facebook is drowning us in an ocean of right wing lies. Please give a one-time or recurring donation, or buy a year's subscription for an ad-free experience. Thank you.

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
Mastodon