Lawsuit against Big Lots
Big Lots, a retail dealer founded in 1967, was accused in 2015 of having violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).
Indeed, as the plaintiff stated, when he tried to apply for a job at Big Lots, he received an application form where some strange information were found; this information manipulated the applicant in such a way that he could give his consent so a consumer report was conducted, but the terms used were not enough to legally obtain the consent.
According to the plaintiff’s testimony, the enterprise Big Lots frequently uses this misleading document to obtain the consent from its candidates, when in fact this consent should be obtained using a document only intended for this purpose.
In this lawsuit the plaintiff demanded to the enterprise that every single person that used this application form should be compensated; this request has caused a serious reputation problem to the enterprise.
As it is stated by the FCRA, it is mandatory for the employers that wish to conduct a background check or a consumer’s report that the authorization the applicant must sign has to be presented in a separate form, different from the other documents needed.
This is an obvious case of the transparency in which the terms must be used and how important is to fully distinguish the different forms that will be presented to a potential worker, so the necessary authorizations could be obtained in a clear and legal way.
The background check investigators from Drakonx have an always compliance with the FCRA policy, assuring to our clients a total absence of risks, sanctions or any kind of lawsuits.
Drakonx Background Check Investigators