Checkr Lawsuit: Allegations, Settlements, and FCRA Damages

Checkr, Inc. has been sued at least 80 times since 2015 under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, with a Checkr lawsuit typically alleging that the company’s background reports contained inaccurate criminal records, mixed up one consumer’s identity with another’s, or included offenses that had been expunged or resolved.¹ Settlements have ranged from individual payouts of $30,000 to $50,000 to a class action resolved for $4.46 million, and consumers who find errors on their own reports can dispute them under the FCRA and sue for damages if Checkr fails to correct the file.

What the Lawsuits Allege

Complaints against Checkr fall into a few recurring patterns. The most common is the “mixed file,” where a record matching only a name or birthdate gets attached to the wrong consumer because Checkr did not confirm identifiers like a Social Security number or middle name.¹

A second pattern is misreporting the severity of an offense. In one case, an applicant’s 20-year-old misdemeanor was reported as a felony on two separate Checkr reports, costing him a Lyft position and limiting him to food delivery work on Uber.² A third involves outdated data: plaintiffs say Checkr has included convictions that were expunged, sealed, or otherwise legally resolved.¹ Critics have attributed these errors to Checkr’s heavy reliance on automated technology without enough human review.

Notable Settlements and Cases

The largest publicly reported resolution came in December 2018, when Checkr agreed to pay $4.46 million plus attorneys’ fees to settle a class action covering more than 96,000 people. The suit alleged that a lack of human oversight of Checkr’s artificial intelligence caused low-level offenses like traffic infractions to appear on employment reports in violation of the FCRA.³

Gig-economy drivers make up a large share of individual claims because Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash use Checkr as their primary screening provider and can deactivate drivers based on the results. Reported individual settlements include:

$50,000 for an Uber driver suspended after Checkr falsely reported an assault charge.
$45,000 for an Uber Eats applicant whose report incorrectly listed a DUI, delaying her start by 16 weeks.
$30,000 for a consumer blocked from both DoorDash and Uber after Checkr reported convictions that had been legally set aside.⁴

A more recent filing, Davis v. Checkr Inc. (Case No. 0:26-cv-60088, S.D. Fla.), was brought in January 2026 by plaintiff Natasha Davis, who alleged that Checkr included other people’s criminal records on her report and failed to use sufficient identifiers to match records to the correct consumer. The proposed nationwide class covered anyone who had received a Checkr report in the prior two years that incorrectly included someone else’s criminal history.⁵ Davis voluntarily dismissed the case without prejudice on January 28, 2026, and the court closed it on February 2, 2026, meaning the claims could be refiled.⁶

The Arbitration Clause That Blocks Most Court Claims

Before filing suit, consumers need to know that Checkr’s Terms of Service contain a binding arbitration agreement and a class action waiver. Those terms are accepted when a consumer logs into the Checkr Candidate Portal to view a background report. In Carimando v. Checkr, Inc. (Civil No. 24-00521, D. Hawaii), a federal court in April 2025 recommended enforcing the clause, finding that the plaintiff had agreed to the terms through a “clickwrap” agreement, that the arbitration language was displayed in bold and capitalized warnings, and that Checkr had no record of him using the 30-day opt-out window.⁷

To keep the option of suing in court, consumers can opt out of arbitration within 30 days of accepting the terms by sending written notice to Checkr. Some consumer advocates also suggest filing any dispute by email rather than through the portal, to avoid triggering the clickwrap agreement in the first place.⁸

How To Dispute a Checkr Error

Under the FCRA, a consumer who finds an error can dispute the information directly with Checkr, which must then conduct a reasonable investigation and correct or delete any data it cannot verify within 30 days.⁹ Disputes can be submitted through the Checkr Applicant Portal or by mail to Checkr’s consumer relations office in Walnut Creek, California.¹⁰

A dispute is not always required before suing. Courts have recognized that when an error involves mismatched criminal records, reporting of expunged records, or immediate significant harm such as a job loss, a consumer may proceed directly to litigation.⁸

Damages You Can Recover Under the FCRA

If Checkr fails to correct the report, or if the error has already caused a job loss, a federal FCRA lawsuit is available. The statute of limitations is generally two years from the violation or two years from the date the consumer discovers the error, whichever is later. What a consumer can recover depends on the level of fault:

Negligent violations allow recovery of actual damages, such as lost wages and emotional distress, plus attorney’s fees.
Willful violations carry statutory damages of $100 to $1,000 per violation even without proof of actual harm, along with uncapped punitive damages and attorney’s fees.¹⁰

Most FCRA attorneys take these cases on contingency, so the consumer pays nothing unless the case succeeds.¹⁰

1
Carolina Law Group. Errors on Background Check
2
Temecula Consumer Attorneys. Lawsuit Against Checkr for Grossly Inadequate Reporting of Criminal History
3
Staffing Industry Analysts. Checkr Settles Alleged AI Error Lawsuit for More Than $4 Million
4
Consumer Attorneys. Checkr Lawsuit
5
Top Class Actions. Class Action Claims Checkr Misreported Criminal Records in Background Checks
6
PACER Monitor. Davis v. Checkr, Inc.
7
GovInfo. Carimando v. Checkr, Inc., Civil No. 24-00521 DKW-KJM
8
R23 Law. Background Check Fail: When You Can Sue Checkr Without Filing a Dispute First
9
Federal Trade Commission. What Employment Background Screening Companies Need to Know About the Fair Credit Reporting Act
10
Clanton Law Office. Sue Checkr