PRACTICE AREA
Background Check Error Lawyer
Lost a job — or a job offer — over a background check error? Screening companies and employers must follow the FCRA. We hold them to it. Our background check attorneys represent job applicants and tenants across the country.
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One Background Check Error Can Cost You the Job
Approximately 93% of employers conduct criminal background checks for some applicants — and 73% run them for every applicant. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) doesn’t just cover credit reports: it applies to employment background checks too. Background check companies must maintain procedures to ensure the accuracy of what they report, and employers must give you clear, conspicuous written disclosure before pulling your report. When either fails, the law is on your side.
Errors That Routinely Appear in Background Checks
- Mismatching you with another person — someone else’s criminal record on your report
- Revealing sealed or expunged records that legally should not be reported
- Omitting disposition — showing a charge without showing it was dismissed or resolved
- Misleading information — duplicated entries that make one incident look like several
- Mischaracterizing offense severity — a misdemeanor reported as a felony
Your Rights Under the FCRA
Before an employer takes adverse action based on a background check — rescinding an offer, ending your candidacy — they must provide a pre-adverse action notice and a copy of the report so you can respond. The screening company must genuinely investigate disputes and correct errors. When these obligations are ignored, remedies can include correction of your report and financial compensation: actual damages for lost wages and opportunities, statutory damages up to $1,000 for willful violations, punitive damages, and attorney’s fees paid by the defendants.
If your issue involves a specific screening company, see our page on First Advantage background check errors — and note that the same principles apply to Checkr, HireRight, Sterling, and other screening companies.
How We Fight Background Check Cases
1. We obtain your full background check file and identify every error and every missing disclosure.
2. We dispute with the screening company — documented, by certified mail, preserving the record.
3. When they fail to fix it, we sue — the screening company, and where appropriate the employer, under the FCRA. Your lost wages and opportunities count as damages, and the defendants pay the attorney’s fees.
The Screening Companies Behind Most Employment Reports
Employers rarely investigate applicants themselves. They buy a report from a consumer reporting agency that specializes in employment screening, and that agency is the entity the Fair Credit Reporting Act holds responsible for the accuracy of what it sells. When a job offer disappears after a background check, the report came from one of a relatively small number of national vendors, and identifying which one is the first step toward seeing the file and correcting it.
- HireRight — one of the largest employment screening agencies in the country.
- Sterling — a national vendor supplying criminal and employment history reports.
- Checkr — a screening company widely used by gig and platform employers.
- First Advantage — a major agency whose reports reach employers across many industries.
- Accurate Background — another national provider of pre-employment reports.
- GoodHire — a screening service used heavily by small and mid-sized employers.
Before an employer takes adverse action it must give you a copy of the report and a summary of your rights, which is the moment to read the file closely rather than the moment to give up on the job. Request your full file from the screening agency, dispute anything that belongs to someone else or that is reported past the permitted period, and ask the employer to hold the decision while the reinvestigation runs. An agency that cannot verify an entry has to remove it, and a corrected report can be sent back to the employer on request.
Frequently Asked Questions
I lost a job offer because of a background check error. Do I have a case?
Possibly. If the report contained inaccurate information, or if the employer failed to give you proper disclosure and a pre-adverse action notice with a copy of the report, you may be entitled to compensation — including for the lost job opportunity itself.
What is a pre-adverse action notice?
Before an employer acts against you based on a background report, the FCRA requires them to send you notice and a copy of the report first, so you have a chance to correct errors. Skipping that step is a separate violation.
The record on my report was expunged. Can they still report it?
Generally no. Reporting sealed or expunged records, or records beyond the FCRA's time limits, is one of the most common screening-company violations.
Who do I sue — the employer or the background check company?
It depends on who violated the FCRA. Screening companies are liable for inaccurate reporting and failed reinvestigations; employers are liable for disclosure and adverse-action failures. Often both are involved — we evaluate that in your free case review.
What does it cost to hire you?
Nothing out of pocket. We handle these cases on contingency — our fees come from the defendants when we win. If we don't win, you don't pay.
This practice area is part of our broader FCRA practice — see how the Fair Credit Reporting Act protects you and makes the violator pay your legal fees.
What Clients Say
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Case results depend on a variety of factors, and prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. The information on this website may not reflect current legal developments and is provided without any knowledge as to the reader/user’s specific circumstances. The application and impact of laws varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Attorneys’ fees and compensation are provided from a successful resolution. The law firm’s office is located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
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