Hertz Corporation Fraudulent Car Theft Reporting & False Arrest Class Action

This class action arises from one of the most striking consumer harm scandals in recent U.S. corporate history: Hertz's systemic reporting of paying, lawful customers as car thieves to law enforcement, resulting in hundreds of documented wrongful arrests, prosecutions, and in many cases, incarceration of innocent people. The lawsuit, consolidated in the Southern District of Florida, alleges that Hertz's fleet management and return-processing systems were so severely deficient that vehicles returned by customers were routinely not updated as returned in Hertz's system, causing outstanding theft reports to remain active with police databases. Customers were subsequently pulled over at gunpoint, arrested, jailed, and in numerous cases strip-searched or held for days before the errors were discovered.

The scale of the problem became public during Hertz's 2020–2021 bankruptcy proceedings, when court filings revealed that the company was aware of thousands of erroneous police reports yet failed to implement adequate remediation. The complaint alleges negligence, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, and violations of state consumer protection laws on behalf of a class of customers who were wrongly reported to police. Hertz has reached individual confidential settlements with some victims, but the class action seeks broader systemic accountability and compensation for all class members who suffered wrongful arrest or prosecution attributable to Hertz's defective record-keeping. The case drew substantial media and congressional attention and prompted calls for federal investigation of rental car company reporting practices.