Denied Employment Because of Wrong Background Check Info

[atesrc710]

I applied for a job. I was told that they would be calling me back with an offer of employment. I instead got a call stating that a background check showed that I was in jail for 2 years. That, of course, is not true. I called that company who did the check and they told me that they got the information from the county court office where I'm from. I called the county court office and was told that in their system and that they have no idea where the background check company got that information. I called the background check company back and was met with a lack of cooperation and attitude. I was told that it's going take a while to get it straightened out. When I told them that this bad information is costing me a job, I was told, "Oh well. There's is nothing that I can do about that." Now the company who was placing an offer on the table is refusing to answer or return my calls. I'm assuming it's because they consider me to be a liar. What should I do?

 

[cbg]

You need to try to track down where the incorrect information came from and get it corrected.

You can probably kiss that job goodbye. While it is possible that, if you can get it straightened out quickly enough, they might reconsider, they are not under the law required to do so.

 

[atesrc710]

I called that court clerk's office where they said they got the information. I spoke with several individuals who stated that they had no idea where they would have gotten it. They told me that they did not see anything of the sort on file and that the background check agency probably gave incorrect information when they made the inquiry.

 

[cbg]

If you want to pursue this, any claim would be against the background check company, not the employer. You will need to talk to a local attorney to see if such a claim would be feasible.