Background Check Error Lawsuit: Suing Checkr and Other Screening Companies Under the FCRA

An employment background check is a consumer report under federal law. The companies that prepare them, including Checkr, HireRight, First Advantage, and tenant screening firms, must follow the same accuracy and dispute rules as credit bureaus, plus extra rules for employment.

Lawsuits usually target one of these problems:

• Wrong person. A criminal record belonging to someone with a similar name or birth date is attached to you. This often happens when records are matched by name alone.
• Wrong outcome. A dismissed charge shown as pending, a misdemeanor shown as a felony, or a sealed or expunged case reported anyway.
• Outdated information. Arrests or other non-conviction records older than 7 years, where the law bars reporting them.
• Procedural failures. The employer took action without first giving you the report and a summary of your rights, or the screening company did not notify you that it was reporting public records.

Checkr

Checkr runs background checks for many gig economy platforms and employers. A New Hampshire Union Leader investigation reported that more than 40 people had sued Checkr under the FCRA in recent years and that Checkr settled a class action alleging it illegally included low-level offenses, such as traffic infractions, on background checks for more than 96,000 people, agreeing to pay $4,460,000 in damages plus attorney's fees. The same report described individual cases alleging erroneous felony convictions and expunged records on Checkr reports.

Checkr still faces new cases. Federal court records show FCRA lawsuits against Checkr filed in 2026 in Wisconsin, Washington, Texas, New Jersey, California, and Georgia, among other places. Each is an allegation that Checkr disputes, and none has been decided on the merits as of September 2026.

HireRight

HireRight resolved Ryals v. HireRight Solutions, a nationwide FCRA class action alleging that it failed to notify consumers when it reported negative public record information and failed to properly investigate disputes, for $28,375,000, one of the largest FCRA class settlements on record.

TransUnion tenant screening

Background checks for housing follow the same law. On October 12, 2023, the FTC and CFPB announced that TransUnion and its tenant screening unit would pay $15 million over charges that they failed to remove inaccurate or incomplete eviction records from rental screening reports.

There is no single class action or MDL covering all background check errors. The field runs on individual lawsuits and targeted class actions:

• Individual accuracy cases are the most common, and they are filed against Checkr and other screeners every month. They usually settle privately.
• Class actions tend to focus on a practice that affected many people the same way, such as reporting a category of records the law bars, or employers using a disclosure form that does not comply with the FCRA.
• Government actions such as the 2023 TransUnion tenant screening settlement set standards but pay into government-run funds.

The 2021 Supreme Court decision in TransUnion v. Ramirez matters here too. Only people whose inaccurate reports were actually sent to an employer, landlord, or other third party have standing to seek damages in federal court. With background checks that is usually easy to show, because the report was run precisely so a decision maker could see it.

You may qualify if:

1. A background check was run on you for a job, a gig platform, a promotion, a volunteer role with a screening process, or an apartment.
2. It contained an error, a record that should have been excluded, or it was used without the required notices.
3. You were harmed: not hired, fired, deactivated from an app, denied housing, or delayed while the error was sorted out.
4. The report was prepared within the FCRA deadline (see below).

Rideshare and delivery drivers are a large share of recent cases, because platforms can deactivate accounts quickly based on a report. Drivers should check whether their platform agreement has an arbitration clause; that clause usually covers claims against the platform, and whether it also covers the screening company depends on the wording.

Tenant screening reports

Landlords rely on screening reports that pull eviction filings, criminal records, and credit data. Errors here often involve eviction cases that were dismissed or settled but reported as judgments, or records belonging to someone with a similar name. The same FCRA accuracy and dispute rules apply, and the landlord must give you an adverse action notice naming the screening company if it denies you based on the report. That notice is what lets you find and dispute the source of the problem.

Gig platforms and deactivation

For rideshare and delivery drivers, a background check is not a one-time event. Platforms often re-run checks periodically, so a record that was never an issue can suddenly trigger a deactivation years into the work. If that happens, ask for the report immediately, check each listed case against court records, and file your dispute in writing. Keep screenshots of the deactivation message and your earnings history, since lost income is usually the largest part of the damages.

Who probably does not qualify: people whose report was accurate and legally reportable, such as a recent conviction, even if it cost them a job; and people who were not harmed because the error was fixed before any decision. A report that is accurate but unfair to you is usually not an FCRA violation, though some states and cities limit how employers may use criminal history.

Claim type	Possible recovery
Negligent FCRA violation	Actual damages (lost wages, emotional distress) and attorney's fees
Willful FCRA violation	Actual or statutory damages of $100 to $1,000, plus punitive damages and fees

In an individual case, lost wages from a job you did not get can be the biggest number, and emotional distress from being labeled a criminal is often significant. In class cases, per-person amounts are smaller: the Checkr settlement split $4.46 million among a class of more than 96,000 people, which works out to a modest amount each before fees.

Fee shifting matters here. Because the FCRA makes a screening company that loses pay the consumer's reasonable attorney's fees, lawyers can take strong individual cases even when the lost job paid modest wages. That is also why many of these cases settle once the screening company sees the court records proving the error.

No outcome is guaranteed. Screening companies often argue they reported exactly what a court record said, so the details of how the record was matched to you matter a great deal.

• Accuracy (15 U.S.C. § 1681e(b)). Screeners must use reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy, which includes using enough identifiers to match records to the right person.
• Public records for employment (§ 1681k). A screener reporting public records likely to hurt your job chances must either notify you at the time, with the name and address of the employer, or maintain strict procedures to make sure the record is complete and up to date.
• Seven-year limit (§ 1681c). Arrest records older than 7 years (or longer, if the governing statute of limitations has not expired) and most other adverse non-conviction items older than 7 years generally cannot be reported. Criminal convictions have no federal time limit. The 7-year limits do not apply to jobs paying $75,000 a year or more.
• Before adverse action (§ 1681b(b)(3)). Before an employer rejects you based in whole or in part on a background report, it must give you a copy of the report and a summary of your FCRA rights. That gives you a chance to point out errors.
• Disputes (§ 1681i). You can dispute with the screening company, which generally has 30 days to reinvestigate.

For a full walkthrough, see the FCRA explained, and for the dispute letter itself, how to dispute a report error.

FCRA claims must be filed by the earlier of 2 years after you discover the violation or 5 years after it occurred (15 U.S.C. § 1681p).

For most people, discovery is the day they receive a pre-adverse action letter, a deactivation notice, or a copy of the report. That date starts a 2-year clock. If you disputed and the screener refused to fix the report, that refusal can be a separate violation with its own clock.

Also watch the separate deadlines that come before a lawsuit. An employer's pre-adverse action letter often gives you only a short window, sometimes about a week, to respond before a final decision is made, so dispute right away and tell the employer in writing that you are doing so.

Class actions can pause the deadline for class members while they are pending, but you should not count on that. Talk to a lawyer well before 2 years pass.

1. Get the report. The employer's pre-adverse action letter should include it. If not, request your file directly from the screening company; you have a right to it.
2. Get the court records. Pull the docket or disposition for each listed case from the court's website or clerk. Dismissals, expungements, and different birth dates are the strongest proof.
3. Dispute with the screening company in writing. Attach the court records. Tell the employer or platform you have disputed.
4. Save every notice. Pre-adverse action letters, final adverse action letters, app deactivation screens, and emails.
5. Track your losses. Lost shifts, lost offer amounts, and the time it took to get work again. Pay stubs from before and after the decision make the comparison easy to prove.
6. Talk to an attorney. Independent attorneys who handle FCRA background check cases usually work on a fee-shifting or contingency basis.

The allegations in pending cases against Checkr and others are unproven. If a background report cost you work or housing, a free case review takes about two minutes. Similar accuracy problems on consumer credit files are covered on our credit report error lawsuit and mixed credit file lawsuit pages.