A huge victory in federal court and a massive jury verdict for our client puts the spotlight of accountability for employment background check errors back on the companies that make them.
Our client sought help after suffering a devasting and unfair Uber deactivation caused by errors in her employment background check by a screening company called SambaSafety.
We listened to her story, guided her through gathering the evidence she needed, and mapped out a strategic legal plan to get her back to good.
Justice was served when a federal jury returned a verdict in her favor for $680,000 and declared that SambaSafety acted negligently and willfully in its handling of her employment background check data.
Employment background check errors aren’t just one-off mistakes that happen to a rare Uber driver. They’re part of a systemic and diabolical problem that has warped the consumer reporting world for a very long time- inaccurate, misleading, and false reporting of consumer data.
Learn why employment background check errors cause harm, how our client fought back to save her Uber driver career, how we won a massive federal jury verdict, and why you should feel hopeful about your power to fight false information in credit reports, background checks, tenant screening reports and more.
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SambaSafety’s Employment Background Check Errors Caused an Uber Deactivation
Years prior to this lawsuit, Tamia Cornelius was living and working in Alaska when she was injured in a workplace accident that left her unable to hold jobs requiring certain physical efforts, including standing for periods of time.
When Tamia discovered that a career as an Uber driver allowed her to earn a great living with just the kind of flexibility she needed to stay as pain free as possible, she was all in.
Tamia quickly turned her zest for work into a successful Uber driver career. As an Uber driver, she worked hard to establish a strong reputtation among her customers, earning recognition with Uber’s Diamond Driver status.
Being a Diamond Driver not only meant that Tamia had great customer reviews and met all of the performance requirements (like a high acceptance rate and low cancellation rate), but it also meant that she had access to the employment perks that come along with this achievement.
During a routine employment background check conducted as part of Uber’s ongoing screening of current Uber drivers, a background check company called Safety Holdings, Inc. that goes by the name SambaSafety, prepared and submitted a background check report on Tamia.
The problem? SambaSafety’s employment background check report included the false information that Tamia’s driver’s license had been withdrawn. If you’re thinking that can’t be good, you’re right.
Tamia’s Uber driver account was unfairly deactivated and she was out of a job. No job meant no income. And because of her prior injury, there were no alternative jobs that could fit her needs.
One..Two..Employment Background Check Disputes Ignored
SambaSafety, in the business of selling consumer reports for use in employment decisions, is considered a consumer reporting agency (CRA) under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).
Under the FCRA:
- SambaSafety had an obligation to “follow reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy” in the creation of the background reports SambaSafety prepared and sold to Uber, including Tamia’s.
- Tamia had the legal right to dispute the inaccurate employment background check report SambaSafety created.
- SambaSafety had an obligation to investigate Tamia’s dispute to confirm the error and make corrections.
Despite these legal requirements under the FCRA, can you guess what happened next? If you guessed that Tamia filed not one, but two disputes, which SambaSafety failed to properly investigate, and the error never got corrected- you’re right!
Consumer Justice Law Firm Successfully Battled SambaSafety
Tamia’s legal team included three top consumer protection attorneys at Consumer Justice Law Firm.
- David Chami, Managing Partner
- James Ristvedt, Managing Attorney and Trial Counsel
- Tarek Chami, Managing Attorney
When presenting the facts, evidence, and law to the jury, Tamia’s legal team was able to show that SambaSafety’s actions negligently and willfully violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) in two important ways:
- By preparing and selling to Uber employment background check reports that contained false information about the status of Tamia’s driver’s license
- By failing to reasonably reinvestigate Tamia’s disputes when she challenged the information and presented evidence to the contrary
In addition, her legal team showed that had SambaSafety conducted even a simple review of readily available licensing data, it would have easily confirmed that the employment background check it prepared and sent to Uber was wrong.
SambaSafety Harmed a Successful Uber Driver
SambaSafety’s FCRA violations resulted in direct harm to Tamia by unfairly and abruptly ending her highly successful Uber driver career. Tamia’s dependence on the job’s flexibility because of her physical limitations and Uber’s deactivation of her account during Alaska’s prime tourist season made her financial, professional, and emotional suffering even worse.
SambaSafety’s employment background check errors caused:
- Uber deactivation and job loss
- Lost income and other economic opportunities
- Loss of Diamond Driver status and all associated benefits
- Loss of a job that specifically met her physical needs
- Loss of time and effort spent battling the employment background check errors and getting nowhere
- Inability to find another job that offered similar flexibility and pay
- Missed opportunity to optimize her income during the prime Uber season in Alaska
- Reputational harm- making her look like someone driving unlawfully
- Anxiety, stress, and other psychological harms
Along with awarding Tamia compensation for all of these harms, the jury also awarded punitive damages.
“This is a major win, not only for people working in the gig economy, but for everyone. This verdict – especially the jury’s finding that SambaSafety willfully violated the FCRA – sends a clear message to the entire consumer reporting industry: take your responsibilities seriously and follow the law or you will be held accountable.”
-James Ristvedt, Managing Attorney & Trial Counsel, Consumer Justice Law Firm
For further reading on the case, use the case name and civil action number: Tamia Cornelius vs Safety Holdings, Inc., d/b/a SambaSafety, Civil Action No. 1:24-cv-00811 (D.N.M. 2026)
How Do Employment Background Check Errors Hurt Applicants and Employees?
The answer is simple- data mistakes in employment background checks create a false story about whether you’re skilled, professional, honest, trustworthy, reliable, and safe. Whether you’re already working in an industry or trying to get hired, the employer’s beliefs about who are shape everything.
The application process is a vetting process that generally involves things like an interview, skills testing, and an employment background check. The data in your background check attempts to tell the story of who you will be on the job.
- Will you show up when and where you’re needed?
- Will you treat customers, colleagues, clients and others with respect and professionalism?
- Will you bring the level of education, experience, and skill needed for the job?
- Will you perform your work ethically and represent your employer in a positive light.
- Will you pose risks of liability, exposing your employer to lawsuits, regulatory violations, HR complaints, and more?
- Will you behave criminally or violenty, putting people and finances at risk?
- Will you damage the brand or uplift it?
When your employment background check include errors, it isn’t just a silly data mistake, it’s an entirely false story, riddled with wrong answers to all of these critical questions. And it inevitably leads to an unwelcome suprise ending- you don’t get the job or keep the job, even though you’re actually qualified and deserving.
Top 10 Industries Negatively Impacted by Employment Background Check Errors
It’s not just Uber drivers being deactivated by employment background check errors, it’s people in diverse industries or vying for wildly different opportunities nationwide.
Here’s the top 10 industries where people get denied, rejected, deactivated, or fired due to inaccurate, misleading, and false data in employment background checks.
- Healthcare and Medical Services – physicians, nurses, technicians, medical records, etc.
- Financial Services – accountants, financial reporting, investment, etc.
- Technology and IT – cyber security, coding, data analysts, etc.
- Education and Teaching – teachers, administrators, paraprofessionals, etc.
- Manufacturing – warehouse, design, build, etc.
- Transportation, Ride-Share and Delivery – Uber and UberEats, Lyft, DoorDash, AmazonFlex, Instacart, UPS, FedEx, Grubhub, etc.
- Corporate and Professional Services – lawyers, marekting, HR, counseling, etc.
- Retail and Seasonal Hiring – Walmart, Target, Costco, Amazon, Lowes, The Home Depot, Kroger, Aldi, etc.
- Childcare and Youth Services – nannies, daycare, preschools, etc.
- Non-Profit and Volunteer Organizations – coaches, camp counselors, hospital volunteers, board members, etc.
Other Consumer Reporting Errors That Harm People
With this case, SambaSafety may be the most recent consumer reporting agency to be held to account for trampling on the rights of consumers through FCRA violations, but it is absolutely not the only consumer reporting agency to do so.
And employment background checks are absolutely not the only kind of consumer reports that get sold with fictional, false facts about consumers. In fact, the scope of the consumer reporting mistake problem reaches far and wide.
Besides employment background check errors, other types of consumer reporting errors include:
- Background check errors: even when they aren’t specifically for employment purposes, these errors pack a harmful punch when they appear. One of the most common scenarios involves false criminal data included in tenant screening reports.
- Bankruptcy reporting errors: these are credit report errors that are specific to the promise of a “clean slate” made during bankruptcy. When these pop up, the promise is broken and opportunities fall away.
- Credit reporting errors: landing a car loan, credit card, mortgage, insurance policy, rental, or other opporutnity when your credit report contains false info can be nearly impossible. The credit bureaus have to follow the FCRA, too.
- Deceased reporting: this specific form of credit report error involves the unsettling false news that you’re dead. Yikes! The consequences can spread into the Social Security Death Master File and shut your whole life down.
- Identify theft recovery: all kinds of credit report errors, financial reporting errors, and unwarranted debt collections can happen in the wake of identity theft.
- Mixed credit report: this wild, unwelcome mix up happens when someone else’s credit and financial data gets mingled with yours.
Get Justice! Fight for fixes & money!
If you discover that employment background check errors blocked your chances as a candidate or brought down an already active career, there is help.
The FCRA gives you powerful rights to fight this injustice and the experienced consumer protection attorneys at Consumer Justice Law Firm know how to take you from career-ending injury to being back in the game. And most importantly, we hold the consumer reporting companies accountable for their errors.
FREE Consultations! You pay $0 upfront or out of pocket. We only get paid when we win. No Justice, No Fee.TM