Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Michigan

Inaccurate criminal background check

A criminal background check was conducted on me. Months later I e-mailed the Employer to find out my employment status. They indicated that due to the information on my criminal report that a position was no longer possible. Of the 4 items appearing on my report, 3 were either wrong or should not have been on the report at all. I had plead down to 1 misdemeanor charge, they had recorded 2 felony charges for the same incident. A charge that my license had been revoked was also on the report - this never occured. I went to District/Circuit Courts and received documentation that I was charged with 1 misdemeanor not 2 felonies and even received a letter from the County Clerk stating that the criminal background check was wrong. I went to District Court and, when they ran the file number that the Criminal Background Co. used to indicate that I had my license revoked, the file number referred to a completely different name and social security number. They ran a current driving record for me which clearly did not show that my license has ever been revoked. Do I have any legal recourse possible against the Criminal Background Company who submitted such a false report on my behalf to a potential Employer?


Asked on 8/24/01, 9:02 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
William Stern William Stern, P.C.

Re: Inaccurate criminal background check

If a private company ran the check, you would not be able to sue them for negligence because they did not owe a duty to you.....they owed a duty to the company that employed them. You may be able to sue them on a 3rd party beneficiary theory..that they owed a duty to the company that employed them and it was forseeable that you would have been harmed by the wrong information. Also, you may be able to sue under a libel theory. You would have to show some damages to make it worthwhile. If you get a job soon at another company, it may not be worthwhile. However, if the job is hard to get, you may have a viable case. It definitely is worth thinking about.

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Answered on 8/27/01, 8:48 pm


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