THE BEST PART IS…
If Checkr has violated the law, you will get money damages, a fixed credit report, and will pay your attorney’s fees and costs. You won’t owe us a dime for our services.
We’re not just lawyers, and you’re not just a client. We’re friends, neighbors, family. We’re all people. And here at Agruss, we put people first.
What is Checkr?
Checkr provides background checks for more than 10,000 business. As more people are moving towards gig work, freelancing, and independent contracting, the ability to complete background checks more efficiently has become a necessity for companies such as Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, GrubHub, and Instacart. Traditionally, background checks have been a long and time-consuming process that required weeks to complete. In this gig economy, workers want and need to work quickly to make ends meet and companies want to keep up with demand for their products. Enter the consumer reporting agency Checkr. Founded in 2014 in San Francisco, saw the need for quick background checks both in the United States and internationally and claims to have “found the way to balance safety and consumer protection” and it is their “responsibility to be accurate and help [our] clients avoid errors”, relying on trust and transparency for its clients and applicants. has counted mostly app-based companies, such as meal delivery and rideshare services, as its main customers, but the reporting agency has also recently added some more traditional, big name companies to its customer base, like staffing giant Adecco and insurance company Allstate, taking the amount of companies that use Checkr’s services to over 10,000. A variety of pre-employment background checks are run by using the applicant’s name, birthdate, and social security number, including:
- Sex offender registry
- County, state, national, and federal criminal checks
- County and federal civil checks
- Global watchlist
- Driving records
- National and international employment and education checks
- Personal and professional references
- Drug checks
- Credit checks
- Wrong information – Untrue information such as criminal records, driving records, accounts you did not open, judgments for lawsuits which didn’t involve you, or debts you did not incur can be permanently removed from your credit report.
- Duplicate information – Some accounts or transactions may be listed more than once in your credit report, and it’s helpful to ensure that your report is duplicate-free to avoid appearing to have more debt or credit-related problems than you do.
- Old and negative information – Most types of outdated negative credit information, such as foreclosures, judgments, liens, lawsuits, and bankruptcy, can be removed after about seven years.
- “This is a company that does background checks. I live in Washington state, it is one of the states that restricts background checks to only 7 previous years back from the date of the initiation on background checks. This company broke the law by going back 33 years to find a misdemeanor on my record that prevented me being hired by “Lyft” thus costing me the income I would have made on that job. I have had no other instances on by record, and feel it was totally unfair of this company to do this.”
- “They performed a background check on me for a job with *********. Its pulling up a charge for shoplifting from Kentucky. The person listed is same name and birthdate as me but I have never lived in Kentucky. They used my social security number so I asked them couldn’t they check that and see that it’s not me. They took maybe an hour after my dispute to say they weren’t changing their report. This has cost me a job. I feel like they could’ve taken more time to be sure that this is not me.”
- “This company reported inaccurate information to my contractor. First i have never pled guilty or been convicted at trial on of for a robbery felony from April 1995. Second this company is a hot mess. They report a case from 2014 that was dismissed. I agreed to term on a open case at the end of the day the disposition on the case was dismissed time it was close.. under California law you can not disclose the terms of a negotiation on a open case. Upon this case been dismissed was the day it was closed. So case dismissed the outcome like it never happen according to the judge.This case was dissed lime it was for a reason and they violated the court’s ruling and California law when they reported to my contractor the contain in a case that was dismissed OFF MY RECORD LIKE IT NEVER HAPPEN.”
- “I feel is not looking for accurate information when doing background checks, I tried to correct what they sended to company I work for and they destroyed any job opportunities I may have had because they wouldn’t correct the background checks to the correct information.”
- “This company does NOT follow regulations set by other states. They seem to believe they are above the law. If your state has time limit regulations, beware this company does not follow them. I give them a zero rating. The use lame excuses for their blatant disregard of the state laws and regulations. I have been a victim of their actions. They had to go back 23 years to find a misdemeanor to report,…………. really Since this will not let me leave my comment without clicking a star, I will click 1, but I really gave them a 0!”
- What do Background Checks Show? Background checks provide a variety of information, such as: criminal history, potentially including arrests, dismissed cases, and/or expunged/sealed records; motor vehicle history, such as traffic tickets; employment history; education history, such as high school and postsecondary records; and civil records and references.
- What Kinds of Criminal Records Can be Revealed in a Background Check? Depending on state law, background checks may include misdemeanors, felonies, and/or juvenile offenses. National criminal information, however, is more expensive and time-consuming to gather, as the vast majority of criminal convictions are at the state-level or lower rather than federal. Furthermore, the two “official” nationwide criminal conviction databases are available only to federal employers and law enforcement officials. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) doesn’t require a deadline for these convictions to be removed from background checks, though some states do have a deadline, such as seven (7) years in California and Illinois.
- Are Arrests That Don’t Result in Conviction Included in a Background Check? Regardless of innocence or guilt, some arrest records may appear in background checks unless they have been legally sealed. For this reason, some organizations do not approve of taking arrest records into account for background checks, though it is indeed legal.
- Do Dismissed Cases Show on Background Checks? A dismissed case may appear on your background check, as a criminal charge will stay on your record even if there was a not-guilty verdict or the charges were dismissed. Fortunately, employers do distinguish between formal convictions and charges that do not amount to convictions.
- Do Expunged or Sealed Records Show on Background Checks? Expunged or sealed records should be absent from a background check report if the candidate successfully petitioned to have said records expunged or sealed. If a candidate has had a conviction expunged, the correct answer to “Have you ever been convicted of a crime?” is “No.”
- Do Traffic Tickets Show on Criminal Background Checks? While simple traffic tickets are civil citations and will not appear on a criminal history check, they can be found via a motor vehicle records check. More serious driving offenses, such as intoxicated or reckless driving, will appear on a criminal history check.
- How Far Back do Criminal History Checks Go? There is no federal rule for how far into the past a criminal history check goes and this is typically decided on a state-by-state basis. A common deadline among states is seven (7) years, which is the deadline in Illinois.
- What Are Verification Checks? While criminal history checks are self-explanatory and make up only one part of a background check, “verification checks” are used to verify other important information about a candidate. This information includes education, employment history, reference-checks, and professional licenses or certifications.
- How do Employment History Checks Work? Employment history/verification checks ensure the validity of information provided by a candidate about his/her work history. These checks typically focus on objective details such as job titles, duties/responsibilities, employment dates, and salary information, which are often obtained by communicating with a candidate’s past employer. While there is no law regarding what an employer can say about a formal employee, employers are typically careful about speaking of formal employees in a personal manner to avoid accusations of defamation or slander.
- What Kinds of Civil Cases Show Up in a Background Check? Bankruptcies, civil suits, tax liens, and judgments may appear in a background check. However, under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), bankruptcies must be removed from candidates’ potential background reports after ten (10) years, and civil suits, tax liens, and judgments must be removed after seven (7) years. Also, there is no national database for civil actions just as there isn’t one for criminal actions, so the extent of evaluation of civil actions may depend on the employer conducting the background check.
- Are Driving Records Included in Background Checks? Driving records may or may not be included in background checks, but are almost always necessary for jobs which require driving. Trucking companies, for example, place far more emphasis on past traffic offenses, DUIs, and license-suspensions than other employers, while all employers may emphasize driving records as much as they prefer.
- Are Credit Reports Included in Background Checks? Credit reports used to be regular components of employment screening background checks. Following the 2007-08 recession, however, bad credit had affected so many potential employees that it was no longer an essential factor of these checks; some states even began prohibiting employers from using credit reports in their hiring decisions. However, some positions still require credit checks, especially those involving the handling of money.
- What Else Can Be in a Background Check? Background check companies often provide employers with a variety of options to choose from depending on the employer’s needs and desires. Additional information that can appear in a background check may include residence history, drug test results, placement on a terror watch list or sex offender registry, or even social media usage.
- What do Companies Look for in Background Checks? Background checks typically have common components: a criminal records check will search for county and federal records, prior convictions, and international criminal history. Identity, employment, and education checks help ensure that candidates are who they say they are and all information they have provided is accurate. Credit checks, while less important than they were prior to the 2008 recession, are still necessary for many finance-related positions. Finally, candidates should be mindful of the possibility of their social media pages being browsed by a potential employer. However, this should not be a cause for concern for most candidates, as employers typically search only for patterns of abusive or antisocial behavior or anything egregious enough to cause an employer to reconsider a particular candidate
- “Thank you Mike Agruss Law!! Not only did you make them remove negative information from my credit report, I also received a settlement payment. I so appreciate your speedy and expert services. I am very glad that I ran across your agency, you were very professional and most of all able to assist me with my issue.”
- “I had inaccurate information on my credit report from a student loan company. I disputed it and got no results. Mike Agruss Law took my case, sued the responsible parties, fixed my credit report, got me money damages, and the other side paid my fees and costs. I did not pay anything.”
- “My ID was stolen. I had wrong information on my credit report. My lawyer got the wrong information removed and got me money. This was fast and easy. I highly recommend Agruss Law.”