You had the offer. You may have given notice. Then the background check came back and the offer disappeared — sometimes with an explanation, often without one.
Before anything else: the law gives you a window here, and most people never learn it exists until it has closed.
The employer has to warn you first
An employer that wants to act on a background report cannot simply decide and move on. There is a two-step process, and the first step is for your benefit.
Under 15 U.S.C. § 1681b(b)(3), before taking adverse action based on a consumer report, the employer must give you a copy of the report and a written description of your rights under the statute. That is the pre-adverse action notice.
The point of it is not paperwork. It is to hand you the report while the decision can still change, so that if the report is wrong you can say so before the job is gone.
The second notice comes after the decision. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1681m, the employer must tell you adverse action was taken, give you the name, address and telephone number of the company that supplied the report, tell you that company did not make the decision, and tell you that you may dispute the accuracy of the information.
If you got the first notice, you still have room
A pre-adverse action notice is not a rejection. It is a warning that one is coming.
Read the report the same day it arrives. Look for the things these reports get wrong: a record belonging to someone with a similar name, a case shown as pending that was actually dismissed, a charge listed more than once, an employer or a set of dates you never worked, a conviction that was expunged.
If you find one, tell the employer in writing straight away, and dispute it with the screening company at the same time. Some employers will hold the decision while a dispute is open. Not all of them will, but the ones that do only know to do it because you told them.
If the offer is already gone
You are entitled to the report. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1681j(b), if you ask within 60 days of being told about the adverse action, the screening company must give you your file without charge.
Get it, and read it against your own history. Two questions matter, and they lead to different places.
Was the report accurate? If the entry is real and the employer was entitled to weigh it, the Fair Credit Reporting Act is not the tool. It governs the accuracy of the report and the process around it, not the employer’s judgment about who to hire.
Was it wrong, or was the process skipped? Then there is something to work with. A screening company must follow reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy under 15 U.S.C. § 1681e(b). An employer that never sent the pre-adverse action notice took away the window the statute gave you.
What to do this week
Ask for the report in writing and keep the date. Dispute anything inaccurate with the screening company, in writing, with documents attached. Keep the offer letter, the withdrawal, and both notices if you received them. If no pre-adverse action notice ever arrived, write down what you did receive and when — the absence is itself part of the picture.
Common background check errors sets out what these reports get wrong and how often. Employment background checks covers the employer’s obligations in more detail. If the report was wrong and the job is gone, what a background check lawyer does and whether you can sue the screening company are the questions to take next.
Admitted in Pennsylvania and New Jersey; available to appear pro hac vice in other federal courts. You pay nothing unless we win.
Sources: 15 U.S.C. §§ 1681b, 1681e, 1681j, 1681m (United States Code); Federal Trade Commission, Using Consumer Reports: What Employers Need to Know.
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