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A Virginia federal court is being asked to give preliminary approval for a $4 million class action settlement with Dollar General retail stores as well as class certification and approval for how the settlement will be administered in a class action lawsuit alleging that the retail chain conducted background checks on job applicants without complying with federal law.
This settlement agreement against Dollar General was filed by plaintiffs Jonathan Marcum and Jackie E. Lewis who alleged that the retail company had violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act because the Dollar General job applicants were sent outdated notices that a background check was performed.
The original Dollar General class action lawsuit was filed in February 2012 by Marcum who alleged that the retail company “willfully failed to comply with the pre-adverse action notification requirements of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) . . . prior to taking adverse employment action against him.”
An amended background check class action lawsuit was filed in October 2012, adding that Dollar General “willfully failed to comply with the disclosure and authorization requirements in [the FCRA] prior to obtaining a consumer report about him for employment purposes.”
This means that according to the FCRA, Dollar General was supposed to inform applicants that it planned to perform a background check on the applicants and obtain the applicants’ consent to the background check.
In addition, Dollar General was obligated to inform the applicants of the findings in the background checks before making a decision to either fire or not hire the applicant based on those findings. This includes a copy of the report and the rights of the applicant under the federal law.
Lewis was added as a plaintiff in the Dollar General background check class action lawsuit in February 2013.
Marcum and Lewis allege that “(a.) they were denied employment with the defendant because of their employment-purposed consumer report; (b.) either the adverse employment decision had been made before the plaintiffs received a copy of their report and summary of rights or the defendant did not provide these in a meaningful and reasonable time before this decision; and (c.) the Summary of Rights form defendant eventually sent was an outdated summary and not the current form required by both the [Consumer Financial Protection Bureau] and the [Federal Trade Commission].”
Even though Dollar General agrees to the class action settlement, the retail chain “denies any wrongdoing and any liability to plaintiffs or to the putative class members.”
Marcum and Lewis want two classes to be certified — one that will receive settlement money and one that won’t.
The one that won’t receive monetary compensation will benefit from an injunctive relief in which Dollar General will be required to update its background check notification policy that to ensure that it is in compliance with the federal law. This class is permitted to pursue damages on their own, but are not allowed to file an additional class action lawsuit.
The class that will be compensated monetarily will receive an average of $24 each. The most someone in this class will receive will be $53.
The total amount that will be paid by Dollar General is $4.08 million. Twenty-five percent of that will cover attorneys’ fees, settlement administrator fees and compensation for the class representatives.
The plaintiffs are represented by Leonard A. Bennett, Matthew J. Erausquin, Susan M. Rotkis and Casey S. Nash of Consumer Litigation Associates PC, and Christopher C. North and William L. Downing of The Consumer & Employee Rights Law Firm PC.
Dollar General is represented by David Neal Anthony, David Michael Gettings and John C. Lynch of Troutman Sanders LLP.
The Dollar General Class Action Lawsuit is Marcum v. Dolgencorp Inc., Case No. 3:12-cv-00108, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
UPDATE: Viewers are reporting that they have received checks from the Dollar General background check class action settlement. Congratulations to everyone who submitted claims and got PAID!
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33 thoughts onDollar General $4M Background Checks Settlement Reached
received my check ; well lets say the payment notice was dated 6/26 : I found it very amusing and extremely clever of the lawyers or the service who dispersed the award monies……Im sure I cant be the only person that may have noticed that the mailing of the check and its envelope that contained it remarkably resembled a collection agencies or another form of a BILL . I cant help but wonder how many people may have discarded their checks as junk mail , etc…….. hummmmmmm
Nice i got my 2nd 53.00 check today wonder what determins who gets what. O well thanks dollar general
I just got my check for $47.28 thought it was a fake check but it is 100 percent real. Had no idea i was even getting a check lol good deal tho.
i was emailed that I was in the settlement I still haven’t received any money for this. and want to know when I am going to receive it . and it is a shame that there was 4.08 million dollars settlement and all the little people is only getting $24.00 to 53.00 that is awful well I guess the old saying goes the rich get richer and the poor get poorer it true .
I was essentially hired and never received a call back on when to start training. I called several times and the store manager would never call me back. I sent several emails to customer service and complaint departments on their website with no returned emails or answers. Finally about a month or two later, I received a letter with my background check results.I happened to be going through a court case that was lasting several months and had or should not of had anything to do with being able to hire me or not. The worst part was that the letter gave me no explanation, no answers, no apologies. It was just the report of me having an ongoing case. I was never convicted and they denied me employment illegally! I was not even aware that there was an ongoing action against them until I received a 47 dollar check in the mail and looked in to it. Not much of a compensation for my rights to be violated by this company breaking an extremely important law. Another slap on the wrist for big corporations that deny employment illegally!
UPDATE: Viewers are reporting that they have received checks from the Dollar General background check class action settlement. Congratulations to everyone who submitted claims and got PAID!
Got a notice that i was included in the settlement but never received a check.
I got a check today for 47.28 at first glance I thought it was a scam. I was hired at 3 locations in a months time and the day I was supposed to show up for work I was let go and was told my background check did not come back good … I had never been arrested .. I am just poor and do not have a high credit score I was so upset that I could not get a job at a rinky dink dollar store. About a month later Kmart and Walmart called me in I got hired at both and accepted the Kmart Job.
I also have a low credit score. Maybe this is why I was denied employment as well.
I got my check for 47.28 and the pay out of 4 million and lost years of work should of got a couple thousands and u can c the the greed in our country shame.
Got my check too, 47.28 looked it up but before I got there, remember how they treated me, I was grateful they got put in check,It was wonderful to see Justis done,and reminded me of community chest in the monopoly game! That was real!
Got my check 4/10/15 $47.28. Its not big money, but the fact they have to pay 4 million worth of these checks does my heart good. I did not know about the suit but when I received the letter with check I knew it had to be because of them unjustly denying me employment in 2010 after my hopes were up that I had the job I so desperately needed at the time. Happy to have justice now.