Your life, your career, and your reputation are too important to be held hostage by criminal background check errors.
You’ve worked hard, polished your resume, nailed the interview, and finally landed the offer. All that’s left is the background check. You’re not worried – you’ve never even had a parking ticket.
Then the results come back, and suddenly you’re staring at a false criminal record on a background check that lists you as convicted felon.
A criminal record mistake doesn’t just sting, it can unfairly lock up your livelihood, cost you opportunities, and make you look untrustworthy in situations where reputation is everything.
From expunged records still showing to duplicate charges on background checks, errors in background check reporting happen more often than most people realize.
Employers, landlords, and even insurance companies rely on these reports, and they usually don’t pause to ask if the information is accurate. You’re guilty until proven innocent – all because of a typo, outdated data, or mistaken identity.
Learn when criminal records get pulled, what the most common types of mistakes are, and how to fix criminal record mistakes before they force you to change plans, give up dreams, or leave you stranded.
For a deeper dive into this topic, check out our Background Check Errors practice page.
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When Are Criminal Records Required in a Background Check?
Background checks aren’t reserved for high-stakes government jobs. These days, they’re standard practice in almost every corner of life.
Employers want reassurance. Landlords want security. Even volunteer organizations want to avoid liability. Criminal records, whether accurate or not, have become a quick filter used to decide who gets opportunities and who doesn’t.
Situations where your criminal history might be reviewed include:
- Employment background checks: Applying for a new job- especially in finance, healthcare, education, rideshare, delivery, or government.
- Tenant screening reports: Renting an apartment, applying for housing assistance, or renting a vacation spot
- Licensing and security clearances: Getting professional licenses or certifications, or security clearances for jobs that involve accessing sensitive information
- Adoption approvals: Seeking approval for adoption or foster care requires a background clearance
- Volunteering: Signing up to volunteer at schools or nonprofits that require working directly with children
- Insurance: Applying for certain insurance policies
When a criminal record mistake sneaks into one of these reports, it doesn’t just block you once, it can follow you everywhere. A background check that should have set you up for success suddenly acts as a permanent roadblock.
What Types of Criminal Record Mistakes Get Reported?
Background check errors come in many flavors, and none of them are sweet.
A single wrong conviction can make you look like a felon, sex offender, or drug user. A few duplicate entries can make one minor issue look like a pattern of misconduct from a repeat offender. And an expunged or sealed charge still reported can undermine years of effort to clear your name.
Here are the most common culprits of criminal record mistakes:
- Mistaken identity – When someone else with your name or a similar identifier gets their record merged with yours
- Expunged record still showing – Even after a court clears your past, some background check companies don’t update their data
- Duplicate charges on background checks – The same charge gets reported multiple times, inflating the seriousness of your record
- Wrong conviction listed – A misdemeanor shows up as a felony, or a charge you never faced appears
- False criminal record on background checks – Entirely fabricated data that has nothing to do with you
- Outdated records – Information pulled from outdated or incorrect databases is reported as current
- Missing or incorrect disposition– Were you never charged? Were charges dropped or dismissed? The outcome matters in telling the full story.
Each of these errors has real consequences. They create distrust, strip away opportunities, and make you spend time and money proving you’re not the criminal the report suggests you are.
How Criminal Record Mistakes Impact Everyday Life
The true cost of a criminal record mistake isn’t just embarrassment – it’s opportunity lost.
Imagine landing a job interview at your dream company, only to be quietly rejected after an inaccurate background check brands you a felon. No one calls to hear your side of the story; they simply move on to the next applicant.
For housing, the story is the same. Landlords may see a false criminal record on a background check and deny you an apartment.
Insurance providers may jack up your rates if they believe you’re risky. Even volunteer opportunities vanish when mistaken identity or duplicate entries make you look like someone you’re not.
The scariest part? You often don’t even know these errors exist until they cost you something.
Why Do Criminal Record Mistakes Happen So Often?
You might wonder how background check companies manage to get it wrong so frequently. After all, we live in an era of instant information.
But speed is part of the problem. Many companies prioritize fast results over accurate results. The quicker they spit out a report, the more money they make. Accuracy becomes an afterthought.
Common reasons for criminal record mistakes include:
- Databases that don’t update when convictions are overturned or records are expunged
- Clerical errors when entering names, birth dates, or Social Security numbers
- Failure to distinguish between people with similar names in the same region
- Systems that automatically “fill in blanks” with the wrong information
- Outdated data sources still being used to generate current reports
The end result is a document riddled with background check errors that directly affect your life.
The Right to Fix Criminal Record Mistakes
You actually have legal rights when it comes to criminal record mistakes on background checks.
Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), background check companies are required to provide accurate information in their reports. When they don’t, they’re violating the law.
This means you have the right to:
- Know that you’re being denied an opportunity because of something in a background check report
- Request and review the background check report that caused the problem
- Demand corrections when you spot background check errors
- Have the background check company investigate and resolve disputes within 30 days
- File a lawsuit if the company refuses to correct or continues to report inaccuracies
- Work with a background check lawyer for no out of pocket or up front cost to you. The background check companies have to pay your legal bills.
It’s not enough to assume the errors will fix themselves. They rarely do. A background check lawyer or background check attorney can push these companies to comply with the law and, if necessary, take them to court.
An inaccurate record isn’t just unfair – it’s illegal. And you don’t have to accept it.
How to Dispute Criminal Record Mistakes
If you’ve been hit with a criminal record mistake, here’s how to start digging yourself out:
- Get a copy of the background check. Don’t rely on secondhand information – request the actual report.
- Highlight the errors. Identify where the report shows wrong conviction records, duplicate entries, or mistaken identity issues.
- Collect evidence. Court documents, expungement orders, or dismissal records can prove the report is wrong.
- File a dispute with the background check company. Cite the FCRA and insist they correct the inaccuracies. We suggest disputing through certified mail as it helps preserve both your rights and documentation – which will be needed later in the dispute and litigation processes.
- Follow up. The company has 30 days to investigate. Don’t let them stall.
- Consult a background check error lawyer. If the problem persists, a lawyer at Consumer Justice Law Firm can file suit and push for compensation.
Correcting these mistakes isn’t about fixing typos, it’s about fixing your future. When an expunged record still showing or a false criminal record on a background check threatens your livelihood, you need to act quickly.
For more on your rights under the FCRA, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau provides a clear explanation of how this law protects you.
Some background check errors are so egregious and damaging, that you may be able to file a lawsuit to get compensation for the harm you’ve suffered without having to prove you’ve disputed the errors.
When you’ve been hurt by a criminal record mistake, it’s worth talking to a background check lawyer early on to get personalized legal guidance for your situation.
Real-Life Examples of Criminal Record Mistakes
Imagine being denied a job at a hospital because a background check lists a conviction for drug possession – except you’ve never touched drugs in your life.
Or picture a single parent being refused an apartment because of duplicate entries that make one dismissed charge look like four convictions.
Add to that the college graduate who applies for an entry-level job only to find a false criminal record on a background check suggesting they were convicted of fraud years earlier. One clerical error means months of rejection letters, missed income, and a reputation they never deserved.
These stories happen every day. People with expunged or sealed charges that still get reported often discover their “clean slate” isn’t actually clean.
Those facing mistaken identity often spend months untangling themselves from the errors of someone with a similar name, while others find wrong conviction records that don’t match their history at all.
These mistakes not only block opportunities – they erode trust, dignity, and hope. They force innocent people to constantly defend themselves against ghosts of a criminal history that was never theirs to begin with.
When any of this happens – you need to fix the errors, FAST!
Why Legal Help Matters
Trying to fix criminal record mistakes alone can feel like pushing a boulder up a hill.
The companies responsible are large, bureaucratic, and often dismissive. They may delay, deny, or outright ignore your requests. They might even insist their inaccurate background check is correct, forcing you to keep sending the same documents again and again.
Meanwhile, jobs slip away, housing options vanish, you reputation is in a landslide, and the damage keeps piling up. That’s why legal help matters.
A lawyer who focuses on background check errors knows the deadlines, the loopholes, and the pressure points. They can ensure expunged records still reported are finally removed, challenge wrong conviction records that haunt your file, and force corrections when duplicate entries inflate your history.
More importantly, they understand how to pursue compensation(money!) if a false criminal record on a background check caused you financial loss or emotional distress.
Instead of fighting alone, you gain an advocate who knows how to push back against stubborn reporting agencies and make the law work for you.
Get Justice! Fight for Fixes & Money!
When a criminal record mistake unfairly locks you out of jobs, housing, or other opportunities, the last thing you need is to shrug and hope it disappears.
Errors like expunged or sealed charges still reported or duplicate charges on background checks don’t just vanish – they need to be challenged.
That’s where a skilled background check attorney comes in. At Consumer Justice Law Firm, we fight to fix criminal record mistakes, hold reporting companies accountable, and make sure your background check reflects the truth – not fiction.
Call now to speak with a background check lawyer who knows how to fight these battles and win.
Protect your future by correcting the record, because your livelihood should never be locked up by criminal record mistakes!
FREE Consultations! We only get paid when we win, and the background check companies pay the bills. No Justice, No Fee.TM