Can I sue an employer for not hiring me for a felony conviction I do not have?

Question

I know this sounds stupid but I have never been arrested nor have I been to court.

I applied recently for this good paying jon and I was told as long as the background check came back ok, I would be hired. The boss celled me the next day and told me I could start next week on Wednesday. Monday I got a phone call and asked to come in. When I came in, I sat with my new boss and he told me that he had to decline on hiring me due to a felony conviction on my record. I asked for the information he had and his source and he refused to give it to me unless I requested it to the company in writing, by mail, to the human resources department.

I have lived in the same town all my life. I contacted the State Police and paid and got a state background check on me. I also went to the county and got my county background check. As I thought, it is clean. So what gives?

CONT'D....

I sent a letter to human resources and I got a letter back stating due to the nature of the conviction and the information obtained in my consumer report, a court order must be obtained in order for the records to be released to me. WHAT!!!!!!!! Now I am obviously moving on to find employment elsewhere but since the job offer was given, then they turned me down due to my supposal criminal record, then i asked them double check the erroneous information and they refused, then I requested the information and they denied my request, can't I sue them. This is serious BULLS**T !!! You can't just accuse someone as being a felon without having the information to back it up. Whats your opinion?

RE: Some of your answers.

My record is clean and I have no established credit.

Answer 1

Hire a lawyer to file a lawsuit based on "libel and slander" -- in some jurisdictions, the lawyer need only file a summons to begin the civil action. In all probability, the personnel department will respond to a letter of representation from your attorney with the necessary documents. If they do not, the will then subpoena the necessary documents. He may also decide that he should take depositions of the people from human resources or personnel related to the matter.

Often personnel departments rely on the services of companies that search courthouse records for a fee. These companies are required to report EVERYTHING under a name without making a decision as to whether or not that information is associated with a particular person. It is the responsibility of somebody else other than the searcher to determine the identity of the person related to the alleged offense. That is to say, typically a corporate officer or administrative specialist determines if the information is related to that individual or not.

Rely on legal counsel. I think hiring a lawyer to get to the bottom of this for you will be money well spent.

Answer 2

Unfortunately, absent an employment contract, companies are free to hire and fire people at will, for any reason, even irrational reasons. They can decliine to hire you even if it is based on incorrect, incomplete, erroneous, and irrelevant information.

The only exception is that a company cannot refuse to hire an otherwise qualified person on account of race, nationality, religious preference, etc.

You can hire an attorney, as others have suggested, but legally they had every right to not hire you.

Aside from that, do you really want to work for a company that is so dysfunctional that they won't even listen to you, nor give you a reasonable explanation? I wouldn't want to.

Answer 3

Have you considered spending half an hour with an attorney? I think you have a case, but a professional will be able to give you a reliable assessment based on all of the relevant circumstances.

A court order to get the info is a new one on me. Did you give up another job to take this one? If you did, you have incurred real damages, which is a pre-requisite for legal action.

Answer 4

As for obatining the info from your new boss, he was in the right. The info would have to be requested via HR and in writing. What I would do if I were in your shoes is write HR again and submit copies of your reports that you obtained. You should also get a copy of your credit report, there could be stuff on there that you are unaware of like maybe the victim of identity theft.

Answer 5

sounds like they didn't want to hire you and this is their excuse. if there is nothing in your background that is criminal, it could be that if you have bad debts, that you are a risk.

it should not be that way but life isn't fair. you probably would not like working for them and it is best to move on rather than make yourself stressed with worrying over it.

if it should happen again, then you might think about hiring an attorney to see what is happening. good luck.

Answer 6

My son had the same problem ,a person with the same name was convicted and that was put on my son's record. It took him a long time to get it removed, he went to court to have it removed.
I do not believe you can sue if you have a conviction on your record, the employee has to go with the info he has in making a decision.

Answer 7

You need an attorney that handles Labor and Employment matters.

I doubt that they fabricated this to deny you the job, but there sure seems to be an error someplace that you need to get to the bottom of in a hurry.

Answer 8

it sounds as if Homeland Security has your number.