What is the difference between dispute and lawsuit?

Question

I went through the entire expungement process, paid the filing fees, waited for the court order, got confirmation that the record was cleared. I genuinely thought that was behind me. Then I applied for a position I was well-qualified for, made it through every round of interviews, and suddenly everything stalled. HR told me something came up on my HireRight background check.
When I pulled the report, the expunged case is right there, listed like it never went away. I’ve already disputed it through HireRight’s portal and sent in the court order. They came back and said it was “verified.” Now the employer is getting impatient and I’m trying to figure out whether I should keep disputing or if there’s a legal option I’m missing. What’s the actual difference between the dispute process and taking HireRight to court, and how do I know which one applies to my situation?

Consumer Attorneys · Accepted Answer

These are two separate paths, and understanding which one fits your situation is worth taking seriously. A HireRight dispute is the administrative process, you notify HireRight of the error, attach supporting documentation, and they are required to reinvestigate within 30 days. A HireRight lawsuit is a separate legal action available when the dispute process produces a bad-faith or rubber-stamp result, or when the error has already caused real harm. They serve different purposes, and one does not replace the other.

What you’re describing, a legally expunged record still appearing, a dispute backed by a court order, and a “verified” response with no meaningful explanation, is exactly the kind of situation our team would want to look at closely. The FCRA sets a clear standard for how background check companies must handle expunged records and what a proper reinvestigation requires. Whether HireRight met that standard in your case is something that depends on the specifics, but a court order that was ignored during reinvestigation is not a neutral fact.
The practical difference:

A dispute asks HireRight to fix the record. It’s free to file and a necessary first step in most cases.
A lawsuit holds HireRight accountable for the harm the error caused, including lost wages, emotional distress, and in some cases punitive damages.
Under the FCRA, when suing HireRight may be appropriate is when the dispute was dismissed without a real investigation, when the same wrong result keeps coming back, or when a concrete opportunity has already been lost because of the inaccuracy.

If you’ve already disputed, submitted your court order, and still received a “verified” response, the dispute phase may have run its course. Our team reviews situations like this at no cost, and we only get paid if we recover something on your behalf. Reach out for a free case review and let us take a closer look at what HireRight actually did with your documentation.