As the gig economy has grown, startup background check company, Checkr, who is most notably responsible for background checks on Uber and Lyft drivers, has exploded as well. And while ridesharing helped the San Francisco-based Checkr to get established, companies like Adecco, Thumbtack, Hot Topic, DoorDash, and Warby Parker are now processing background checks through Checkr, which has completed over 42 million reviews of potential employees.
In September 2019, Checkr announced that it has raised an additional $160 million in venture funding from investors T. Rowe Price, Mary Meeker’s Bond Capital, and Coatue Management, which doubles the startups value to $2.2 billion, which will help the company expand beyond the U.S. and Canada and into the international market.
Checkr was founded five years ago by two Forbes 30 Under 30 alums, Jonathon Perichon and Daniel Yanisse, who when working at another startup Deliv, saw the need for better, quicker, more automated background checks for employees. While Checkr has made the background check process more convenient for employers, it has not been without controversy.
Background reports from Checkr have not only been inaccurate, causing workers to lose job opportunities or lose jobs, but frequent reports of violence, rape, and robbery from rideshare and delivery drivers that have passed Checkr’s background checks have made headlines.
How Checkr Background Checks Are Run
Traditional background checks are fingerprint-based and run against FBI and law enforcement databases. This method of running a background check is time-consuming, but leaves very little room for errors, unlike Checkr’s methods which are the fastest in the industry, but entirely based on a social security number and name run through public records such as county court records and the national sex offender registry, which are notorious for being inaccurate.
This process has not only allowed those convicted of serious crimes into positions that put the general public at-risk, but it has also prevented honest, hardworking citizens from acquiring jobs or has resulted in these workers being fired due to inaccuracies in their reports, according to recent lawsuits.
Checkr founders have acknowledged the accuracy errors and states that they have a fair process for disputing and appealing errors. Also, its founders have created a separate website, Better Future, for people to perform their own background checks and flag any errors that are presented. Unfortunately, for potential employees, this error resolution process has not always been successful or easy.
Checkr Legal Troubles
Legal issues regarding the misinformation of its background checks have continued to plague Checkr. In 2014, district attorneys in San Francisco and Los Angeles sued Uber over its Checkr-run background checks, alleging the company hired drivers who were convicted of murder, kidnapping, and assault with a firearm, which was subsequently settled for $10 million. When Massachusetts required state-run background checks for Uber and Lyft in place of Checkr, 8,200 drivers failed the new screenings, approximately 1,000 of these drivers losing their jobs due to convictions for violent crimes and 51 who were registered sex offenders.
More than 40 people have sued the company for violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and in December of 2018, Checker settled a class-action lawsuit that alleged illegal information regarding low-level offenses were included on the reports of 96,000 people, which paid out $4.46 million in damages and attorney fees.
In a suit filed in September 2019, a San Antonio woman claims her Checkr report found 19 criminal charges which were completely false, causing Uber, UberEats, Lyft, and DoorDash to reject her applications. When the woman contacted Checkr, she was allegedly told that her report was true, and the company refused to make any corrections.
Recently, a Maryland resident, who was driving for Uber for two years, and had an annual “Continuous Check” report run on him, was suspended from the rideshare company when his background report erroneously linked him to crimes committed in Ohio. After disputing the report, Checkr corrected it and the driver was reinstated. When Continuous Check was run on his background a second time, the driver was again suspended for the same errors that were supposedly corrected, according to court records.
And these are just a small sampling of the cases against Checkr and the companies that use their services. Dozens of lawsuits have been filed against Checkr since 2014 and this number is sure to grow as the background check company continues to provide erroneous information.
Your Rights Under the FCRA
If you had a background check run through Checkr for potential employment and you were denied the position due to an inaccurate report, or Checkr refused to fix incorrect information, you do have rights under the FCRA. The FCRA allows for consumers to dispute errors, have mistakes removed, and to not have outdated information older than seven years (10 years for bankruptcies) listed on a report. If a company such as Checkr violates these requirements, consumers have the right under the FCRA to sue for damages.
If you have a problem with Checkr regarding your background check, you may be entitled to money damages, up to $1,000.00, plus actual damages, and we’ll get Checkr to fix the error. The FCRA also has a fee-shift provision, which means the credit reporting agency will pay your attorney’s fees and costs. You won’t owe us a dime for our services. We have helped hundreds of consumers fix inaccurate information on their credit reports, and we’re ready to help you, too.
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Submitted Comments
I was denied by two gig companies, DoorDash & Grubhub background checks
I have had 2 issues with checkr: 1st with doordash who fired me after 3 years, 6/2022 , after a routine checkr background check which found nothing new, and just recently found that they are reporting Violations over 7 years old, and also Uber has not complied with local or state laws regarding hiring. Under the fair chance law. Please contact me immediately, as I wish to pursue 3 cases. VS Doordash, VS Uber, and VS Checkr. Park what? Myself? Or are you kicking me out again. What do you mean park? I\'m not even doing that rn. Though I should have already done that. But you\'ll weasel ur way out of it. But nothing. If u were acting in a professional capacity whatsoever I have rights. You violated them. Period. That\'s simply put. If you were acting in my best interests you would not have been informing on me. Basically. So you can\'t have it both ways. You have to pick one. Which you did. You chose to inform. So, what choice do you leave me? You acted like you were my lover, my life partner and you were lying to me that entire time you were acting as an informant and therefore my Civil Rights were violated. By performing a search of my phone on 1/16/2019, you obtained information which you used again and again to surveil me, my location, my accounts, my emails and everything else attached to that. Which makes any and all linked information, fruit from the poisonous tree. Making it all inadmissible in a court of law. Plain simple law basics. If I don\'t assert the law to my advantage in this case, I am opening myself up to anything that you can come up with from anything in my phones... and while I don\'t have anything to hide, I do not appreciate how the years longs privacy invasions have altered my life. And there are plenty of documents to prove intrusions into my accounts, and anything digital that you can try pin against me is therefore wrought with reasonable doubt. I have said for 2 years now, ya\'ll are trying to set me up. And its true. The documents that I constantly find strategically placed , yet others are gone, like my passport, and the actions taken to hold me back keep me down out of vengeance for you getting busted with your relationship is not my fault or intention. It never was, because I thought you and I were together with no one on the side, or something like that. I never knew that I was the side guy. And you were married. How was I supposed to know that? I thought we were together. We slept together almost every night and held each other like we were together. How could I have known any different if you never said it. My heart hurts. 10 months later, still. You broke my heart and hurt me to the core of my existence. And I had just opened up to someone again. You were the first person I cared for after Chris died. And you let me get so emotionally invested and you turned on me. You did. How can you say anything other than that. Look at what you did while we were together and you were so uncaring about it. Unkind is better. You constantly tried to get me to fight with you. Remember the kicks and the hitting me when I was on the floor? After you pulled me off the bed. And I just sat there and looked at you, and I couldn\'t believe you were doing it. When you threw the coffee maker at me which really hurt BTW. It was shocking. I couldn\'t believe that I had done anything to deserve that retaliating. I never ever wanted to hurt you. And 95% of the time i was just trying to get you to not run away and to chill out and talk things through. Bit you slways wanted to bolt and then there were times I kicked you out. And I was wrong for some of those times. I admit that. And I have apologized to you for those times. But turns out I should have just left you when I first tried to break up with u Dec 19 19. But I couldn\'t because of ur mom. So I stuck it out. Abd said after the holidays, the after valentines bc of everything that was happing. Then COVID19 pandemic happened and it was ok. Bc we had a common enemy and we bonded as we fought for survival. And then I fell in love with you completely because I had been holding back. And you were also my captor at that point, keeping me from being able to be me, to do things I wanted to, kept me from working a lot, you were demanding money and doing that double talk thing, and it was driving me crazy and I felt trapped but at the same time was in love, so it is what it is. Was.. even when I saw that video. I hated that you did that, and I couldn\'t understand why you did. And I couldn\'t leave you still. For whatever reason you had my heart and you knew it. That is what is so cold. You know that you have led me on. You know that have done some horrible things ho me, but still you question me about anything that I am finally doing doing to be independent of you. To be honest with you, I don\'t like being alone, but I would much rather be alone than open myself up to what I have been through in the last 5 years. Because it has scarred me to that point. Why? You ran me down with a car, chased me out my own apartment with a taser. Forced me out into the streets without food or mrds for weeks. Three times. How many tines have I gotten on planes trains and busses trying to get away from you. Savannah x1 Vegas x3 Berkeley x1 left in the car x2... hello. Is that not a sign? You had somewhere to go. I had nothing no one. Oh mental hospital x3 suicide attemps x1 really don\'t act like you were the victim. How often did you try leave me? Twice. Of the 67 times we broke up. Check my icloud notes. 67 times. You initiated twice. If you were suffering so badly from my actions, why was I the one running away, sleeping on the sidewalk, trying to die, and running away from you 8or10 times? Why was i the one in mental health turmoil? And hospitals, you just now got see a therapist twice, and you want to claim victimhood. Why is your bro the one threatening to kill me, trying to knock down my door to get me? When you have been the one causing the problems for me? At least in part. Explain how you don\'t get that im unhappy with the searches. When everything else i just said is at least 99% accurate. If I misspoke on date or minute detail, then forgive me i Don\'t have my notes in front of me, because they keep getting locked away from me in accounts that I can\'t access or deleted entirely.
Checkr had me fired from uber,lyft, uber 6 yes. I lost everything,facing eviction. They reported issues 18 yrs. Ago. On checkr.
I was granted a certificate of relief from disabilities and Uber, doordash, lyft all are not honoring my certificate. My charge was a misdemeanor criminal possession of a weapon. I received probation and never received any jail time for the incident. My probation officer told me to file a lawsuit, because my certificate is a court document honored by the judge and checks and Uber should take my certificate into consideration but they are not
Checkr wont update my backround check they said i have expired or invalid drivers license when my license wont expire till 2029 and now i cant drive with uber or lyft because of this false information.
Doordash deactivation Checkr background check
Hello , CheckR’s wrong reporting didn’t get me a Job in Massachusetts in 2016 and I called and they lied to me about it. It affected me in 2021 in Puerto Rico where u been living since 2017 !
Checkr is reporting 15 year old misdemeanors and expunged records to Spark
I would like to talk to someone
Checkr recently provided Uber, who I had been driving for for over seven years, a highly inaccurate motor vehicle report. It stated that I had no current license. That is false, I’ve been driving for Uber with this current license since 2019! I reached out to Checkr to get a reinvestgation to straighten it out and the answered back with the same result, I have no current license. I’m driving legally with a current GA drivers license. Uber has suspended my driving privileges and I am losing money I would otherwise be making right now. Please help!
Checkr provided unknown information about me to Uber and they turned me down.
They refuse to provide me validated documents nor copies of exactly what they sent to them.
LYFT hired me, and Uber did not. It has come to my attention that each company received contradicting information about my person.
What is my recourse against Checkr for deformation of character and lost income? And anything else one may be entitled in suit or settlement for damages?
Summary of Complaint
Milano v Checkr
Mario Milano, Plaintiff, an 81 year-old pensioner on $856 per month, is suing Checkr Inc., Defendant, a $4 billion dollar company for gross negligence, and for failure to approve a driver’s license and background check in a timely manor.
In their statements, they boast that they can approve a driver within 1 to 3 days maximum. This is false. Plaintiff applied through Uber to be a share driver on June 28th of this year. As of November 23, it will be over 4 months that CheckR has not completed their background check on Plaintiff.
Almost daily Plaintiff has checked his driver’s App. Under the status, it says “still pending” or “we are working very hard to get you approved”. One status report stated a date that Plaintiff would be approved by (June 29 to July 4th. 2023).
Defendant approved Plaintiff in one day for Lyft. Plaintiff drove for Lyft for 8 weeks with perfect driving and customer approvals. The whole time Plaintiff was waiting for approval, Defendant already had the Plaintiff’s perfect driving record and background check. This is indicated in Plaintiff’s evidence.
Plaintiff tried numerous times to contact CheckR by phone. Sometimes Plaintiff waited over one and half hours. Then a message came on, “We are over loaded with calls, Call back later.”
There are over 1,816 complaints on The Better Business Bureau, Pissed Off, and other complaint portals.
Plaintiff is providing 10 of these complaints. These are from other needy drivers who’s livelihood like Plaintiff’s have been impacted by CheckR’s willfully gross negligence. They are aware of the complaints similar to Plaintiff’s. Additionally, they have been sued over eighty times since February 2020. Honorable Judge Sallie Kim of the U.S. district court, in Howell VS Checkr award Mr. Howell over $300,000.
Defendant has over 1000 employees, yet they cannot maintain a working customer service, answer their phones or emails, or stand by their pledge to approve a driver in one to three days. Further, because of their indifference, Plaintiff lost the rental that he was renting for almost 3 years and now he must sleep on a friend’s couch.
Perhaps the positive outcome of this complaint will send a message to the Defendant, that they can be held accountable to hundreds of eager share drivers who rely or have relied on Defendant to get approved timely, without delay, and without false promises.
Jesus where to begin. I’ve lost my DoorDash and been denied by Uber Lyft and anyone else that uses this raggedy “service”. I’ve been cleared on one and denied on others and it’s pretty much broke me financially
My delivery driving app was deleted/deactivated because CHECKR said my license was expired/suspended or invalid. This isnt true AT ALL! I have stellar driving record with avg $1500-2000 per monht in side income from my driving. Now i have $0.00. I appealed it and after 30days they affirmed the decision stays. NEED TO RECOUP MY LOST WAGES from checkr!!
Failed a background check with Checker thru Lyft. I applied to drive and my background check failed due to conviction that was over 20 years old and expunged.
Checkr has had 7 weeks to complete a simple criminal background check on me and is refusing to complete the job. I submitted to a criminal background check with Checkr to do some part time side work while I am temporarily in Massachusetts.
I am a military reservist and hold a high level security clearance with the US government which I could not maintain with any criminal history. I have never had a background check for employment with a private company take more than a week but Checkr\'s delays and refusal to complete this check has now cost me thousands in lost earnings.
Furthermore Checkr claims the delays were due a cyber attack on Bibb County, GA where I lived when I was a child prior to 2006. I have called the county courthouse, sheriff\'s office and other public records keeping organizations in Bibb County and the State of Georgia and they have all confirmed all of Bibb County\'s and Georgia\'s investigative databases are online and working normally. I even ordered a Georgia Bureau of Investigation criminal background investigation myself at my expense and submitted it to Checkr from the state (not myself) but they have refused to acknowledge it and complete the background check.
I am interested in exploring any legal remedies against Checkr to recover lost earnings from their delay and expose them as a bad software company masquerading as a background investigator. Apparently they have very few (if any) people who manually can conduct investigations and almost all of their checks are conducted by AI software. As you know not all counties and states allow digital or outside access to criminal/court databases which means legitimate background investigation organizations have to either hire or contract human beings to pick up the phone or visit courthouses in person. Checkr does not appear to have this ability and should be forced to make this public to their customers and candidates.
Apologies for any typos and the length of this rant (writing this at lunch between commitments) but if there are any legal remedies happy to talk.
Checkr is ruining my life treating me like a criminal
Checkr sent me a two-page document that said \"Clear\" or \"Complete\" next to various searches they said they conducted. I guess they can\'t provide wrong information if they don\'t provide any information at all. It seemed like such a scam that I wondered if they were doing it just to get people\'s SSNs and other personal information for illegal purposes.
Checkr reported my personal background check to my employer. My employer uses Checkr but they did not pay or run this and I just got fired
