Legal Question in Administrative Law in Florida

Re: Non-charged theft/fraud

Yours is the first case I have ever heard of where the employer actually told you that you had failed a "background check." Maybe you can dispute the item with the credit reporting agency under FCRA and they will have to remove it if the original reporting party doesn't verify the item. You could possibly hire a lawyer to write tough letters to the former employer demanding the item be removed.

Poke around creditboards.com .

Re: Non-charged theft/fraud

Mr. Stone is right. I do not see how a statement by an employer would ever get to the credit card company [demand a copy of the threee credit reports and see what they actually say] since there was no criminal charge or conviction. It is a mere accusation, like a neighbor saying yuou are not a good person. I also wonder if the employer had a legal right to withhold money from you without your agreement and whether that is made worse by the fact that he is taking it out of a Federal program [call up the government agency handling it and see what they have to say].

Once you have all the facts, write a polite letter to the former employer telling him of the problems that are being caused you and asking him to withdraw whatever remarks are in the file. Follow up a few days latter with a phone call. If he does not co-operate then send the nasty letter pointing out what he did was likely illegal. You may want to hire an inexpense attorney to then write a letter on attorney stationary demanding a retraction.

Good luck.

Re: Non-charged theft/fraud

I suspect this information was not obtained from a credit-reporting agency; it sounds more like something obtained through a search of criminal justice records. In Florida perhaps arrests are logged and recoverable from a data base even though the arrest does not result in prosecution. I used to be a law clerk in a public defender's office in CA and we had computer access to old arrest records even though there was no record of follow-up by the D.A.

Further, I don't agree that old DUI convictions disappear from your record after the passage of time, unless perhaps the offense was charged as or reduced to an infraction.

As for old "negatives" on a credit record or report, I think the reporting agencies stop using them as they age, partly at least because the agencies' and their clients' research shows that the old data is a relatively poor predictor of a subject's current credit worthiness. I'll bet the older data is still there in the credit agency's data base; they just don't report or analyze it.

I think whether this will have any effect on your job hunt or not will be largely dependent upon what kind of position you're seeking....it could be a big deal if you're applying to be assistant treasurer or purchasing agent or auditor, but for a Chief Technology Officer, chemist or skilled nursing position, your technical skills will be much more important.