The Offer Was Pulled After the Background Check. What Now?

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. If the word you were given was “failed,” what a failed background check actually means is its own page.

Before anything else: the law gives you a window here, and many people never learn it exists until it has closed.

Can an employer rescind a job offer after a background check?

Usually, yes. Most job offers are conditional on the background check, and outside a contract or a statute an employer can generally decide not to hire. What the employer cannot do is skip the steps the Fair Credit Reporting Act requires when the decision rests on a report from a screening company, and the screening company cannot report information it has not taken reasonable care to get right. Those two duties are what this page is about.

Some cities and states add rules of their own about when and how criminal records can be considered. Philadelphia is one. If you applied for a job there, see background check lawyer in Philadelphia. For New Jersey, see background check lawyer in Newark.

If the offer was pulled after a credit check

A credit check for a job is a consumer report under the same law, so the same notices apply. Before the check, the employer must give you a written disclosure, in a document that consists only of that disclosure, and get your written authorization. If the employer then acts on what the credit report shows, it owes you the same pre-adverse action notice, with a copy of the report and a summary of your rights, before the decision is final.

Credit reports for employment are not credit scores. They usually show accounts, balances, payment history and collections. The errors that cost people jobs are the ones that also cost them loans: an account that is not theirs, a collection that was paid, a debt discharged in bankruptcy still shown as owed, or a mixed file carrying someone else’s history. If the report the employer used was wrong, dispute it with the credit bureau that supplied it. Credit reporting errors explains how.

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 a background report is not allowed to include

The Fair Credit Reporting Act limits how far back a screening company can reach.

• Arrests and other non-conviction records: generally not reported once they are more than seven years old (from the date of entry), or after the governing statute of limitations has run, whichever is longer.
• Convictions: no time limit under federal law.
• Exception: these time limits do not apply to a job paying $75,000 a year or more.

Within those limits, the report still has to be accurate. A case listed as open that was dismissed, a record belonging to someone with a similar name, a sealed or expunged case, or one case reported two or three times are all errors. A report that contains them may not meet the requirement of reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy.

“Failed” is the employer’s word, not the law’s

There is no pass or fail line in the statute. The screening company reports, and the employer decides. That matters for two reasons.

• If the employer’s decision rested on accurate information, the Fair Credit Reporting Act generally does not second-guess it.
• If it rested on an error, the error is the problem, and the screening company that reported it is responsible for its accuracy.

What a failed background check actually means goes further into this.

When the error is real and it cost you the job, the law allows actual damages, which can include the wages you lost, plus attorney’s fees for a consumer who wins. A willful violation can also bring statutory and punitive damages. The time limit is short: generally two years from when you discovered the violation, and no more than five years from when it happened.

What applicants have alleged

In a complaint filed in October 2025 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania (McCutchen v. Employbridge, No. 3:25-cv-01864), an applicant to a staffing company’s Wilkes-Barre office alleged that the company extended him a job offer, ran a background check, and then withdrew the offer without following the FCRA’s disclosure, authorization and pre-adverse action requirements in 15 U.S.C. § 1681b(b)(2) and (b)(3). He seeks to represent other applicants treated the same way. These are allegations in a complaint, not findings.

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.

Common questions

Can an employer take back a job offer because of a background check?

Yes, but not without notice. Before it withdraws an offer based even partly on a background report, the employer must give you a copy of the report and a written summary of your rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. That step gives you a chance to point out errors before the decision is final.

Does an employer need my permission to run a background check?

Yes. The employer must give you a clear written disclosure, in a document that consists solely of that disclosure, and get your written authorization before it obtains the report.

Can I sue if my job offer was pulled because of a wrong background check?

You may have a claim against the screening company that produced an inaccurate report, and against an employer that skipped the required notices. The FCRA lets a consumer who wins recover damages and attorney’s fees. You pay nothing unless we win.

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.