Employers run millions upon millions of background reports each year on applicants and employees. When they run the reports, they rely on background reporting companies such as Checkr, Sterling Infosystems, and First Advantage to provide them accurate information in the background report. Sometimes, the background reporting companies fail.
One of the most common errors that a background reporting company makes is reporting to the employer that an applicant has a felony, when the applicant actually has a misdemeanor. This can happen for any number of reasons. Often times, it happens because the background reporting company misread the court record or received incorrect information from a large database of information.
Most of the time, there is an easy fix. The Fair Credit Reporting Act allows applicants and employees to dispute the information with the background reporting company, such as Checkr, Sterling Infosystems, and First Advantage. The law requires the background reporting company conduct a reasonable reinvestigation within thirty days. This reinvestigation typically involves a review of the court records, a review that will show that the offense is a misdemeanor. The background reporting company is then obligated under the Fair Credit Reporting Act to amend the background report and provide the amended report to the applicant/employee and the user (typically, the employer) of the report.
But sometimes the job is no longer available after the employer has denied employment. Sometimes the background reporting company will refuse to amend the report with the accurate information. And sometimes the employer will have moved on to another candidate for the job. In these cases, there may be legal claims to pursue against the background reporting company under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. If you’ve experienced a misdemeanor being reported as a felony, or any other inaccurately reported information, please contact the Fair Credit Reporting Act attorneys at Weiner & Sand LLC to discuss your situation and to learn what can be done.