Ralph Greer established a Fourth Amendment violation by several individual supervisors after being discharged from his position with the Detroit Department of Water and Sewage (DWSD) when he refused to submit a drug test to the company. The Construction Inspector was…
Posts by Category: Background Check Compliance
FTC Issues ‘Advice’ on Background Check Disclosure and Authorization Forms
The Fair Credit Reporting Act’s (FCRA) hyper-technical disclosure and authorization requirements are competing with compliance of criminal background check laws as a source of litigation risk for employers. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently released the…
New York City Mayor Signs Pay Equity Law – Impact on Employment Background Checks
New York City has joined Massachusetts and Philadelphia in prohibiting employers from inquiring about a prospective employee’s salary history during the hiring process. Mayor Bill de Blasio signed the new law in May, which will take effect Oct. 31 and applies to…
Improper Form of Background Check Disclosure Not Sufficient Injury for Standing
Courts have been struggling to define the contours of standing in “no injury” ever since the Supreme Court decided Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins last year. The District of Minnesota recently granted a motion to dismiss a Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) claim in which a…
More than 8,000 Uber and Lyft Drivers Fail Massachusetts Background Check
As part of a deal that would allow Lyft and Uber drivers to service Logan Airport, the ride-sharing companies agreed to let the state run its own background checks. As a result, more than 8,000 current and recent Uber and Lyft drivers in Massachusetts have been banned…
Ohio State and Federal Courts Find No Standing to Assert Technical Violations of the FCRA’s Background Check Disclosure Requirement
Ohio courts have recently weighed in on the issue related to the procurement of background checks on current or prospective employees — more specifically, whether employees have the standing to sue employers in cases where the employer fails to provide a…
FCRA Suit Against Amazon Moves Forward
A judge has ruled that a Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) suit against Amazon can move forward in Florida federal court. Donovan Hargrett, who sought employment as a fulfillment associate in Florida, accused the online retailer of violating the FCRA by failing to…
Bare Statutory Violation of FCRA Fails to Satisfy Standing Requirements Post-Spokeo, Says District of New Jersey in Suit Over Michaels Employment Disclosures
The recent ruling in In re: Michaels Stores, Inc., Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) Litigation confirms the significance of the Spokeo decision and also provides FCRA defendants with additional ammunition to use in fighting statutory violation claims where damages are…
District Court Wrestles with Interpretation of Webpage in Background Check Disclosure Lawsuit
The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires that employers provide prospective applicants with a disclosure before obtaining a pre-employment background check from a consumer reporting agency. This disclosure must be in a single document that consists “solely of the…
Rite Aid Seeks Dismissal of Job Applicant Background Check Class Action
Last month, Rite Aid filed a motion to dismiss a proposed Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) class-action in the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The complaint states that the business violated the FCRA by failing to allow job applicants to…





