HireRight cost me a job. What now?

Question

I had a written offer, gave my notice at my current position, and had already set a start date. Then HR went quiet. When I finally heard back, I was told the offer was rescinded based on my HireRight report. I pulled the report myself and found a criminal record that is not mine the name is close but not exact, the date of birth is off by years, and the charges are from a state I have never lived in. HireRight still attached it to my file. Now I am out of a job I had already mentally started, and I cannot get HR back on the line.

Consumer Attorneys · Accepted Answer

When HireRight cost you a job by misreporting another person's criminal record as yours, that is a textbook mixed-file violation under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The law requires consumer reporting agencies to maintain maximum possible accuracy and to use sufficient identifiers before tying a criminal record to your name. Matching on a near-identical name while ignoring a different date of birth and a completely unrelated state does not meet that standard. Losing an offer you already accepted because of background check errors that cost you a job is precisely the harm the FCRA was designed to remedy and you may have a claim for actual damages, emotional distress, and, where the violation was willful, statutory or punitive damages.

Steps to take immediately:

Save everything: the HireRight report, your offer letter, resignation notice, and every HR email or message.
Dispute in writing not just through the portal identifying each inaccuracy and the specific mismatches: wrong DOB, wrong state, name discrepancy.
Request the source record and the identifiers HireRight used to match it to you.
Document your losses: the rescinded offer, the job you left, and any income gap you are now facing.

Consumer Attorneys represents people whose careers have been derailed by background check errors that cost you a job. If HireRight cost you a job because their report included someone else's record, contact us for a free case review you pay nothing unless we win.