McPherson v. Canon Bus. Solutions, Inc., 2014 WL 654573 (D.N.J. Feb. 20, 2014).

In this putative class action case, the plaintiff alleged violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act in the defendant’s hiring practices. The plaintiff filed requests for discovery, but the defendant objected, claiming the plaintiff could not certify a class due to the FCRA’s statute of limitations. Under Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(b)(2)(C)(iii), the court recharacterized the defendant’s motion for summary judgment as a motion to limit discovery. The court held that the plaintiff was entitled to reasonable discovery going back five years, noting that all claims in that time are potentially timely, and that discovery could shed light on a scheme to conceal FCRA reports or reinforce the defendant’s position that putative class members were aware of the defendant’s use of FCRA reports. The court granted limited discovery in the form of a random ten percent sample of otherwise eligible class members to balance the plaintiff’s need for the data against the defendant’s burden of production.