Written By Thomas Ahearn
A Manhattan man has filed a class-action lawsuit against a background check company claiming that a job offered to him was rescinded after a background check mistakenly found he had felony and misdemeanor convictions belonging to another man with the same name and birthday. A story about the lawsuit by the New York Daily News is available at http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/bad-background-check-cost-manhattan-dad-job-suit-article-1.1777819.
The Daily News reports the plaintiff, Kevin Jones, 58, says his job offer as a doorman was rescinded when a background check found he had a criminal record that actually belonged to another man also named Kevin Jones who had the same birthday but a different middle name and was a different race. The plaintiff says he filed the suit against the background check company “to make sure what happened to him doesn’t happen to anyone else.”
According to the Daily News report, the suit says the plaintiff’s background check report contained “four grossly inaccurate and stigmatizing criminal records” claiming the plaintiff was “convicted of driving under the influence, attempted petty larceny, aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, and criminal possession of stolen property.” When the plaintiff said there was a mistake, the background check company stood by the report.
The Daily News reports the lawsuit claims the background check company “lied about using official court records” and “obtained the info from a bulk data collection service.” The suit claims if the company had checked the court they would have discovered that while the two Kevin Jones shared the same birth date, the one with the criminal record had a different middle name, did not live at any of the same addresses, and was white while the plaintiff is black.
NOTE: Employment Screening Resources® (ESR) has a policy not to identify background check firms involved in litigation where no facts have been determined or no settlement entered into.
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