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Comment by anonnystate | Hacker News Reader

Exactly. But they have given this excuse to the hiring agency and tarnished that relationship. Do I literally have to take them to court to find out? I have asked in a very friendly manner explicitly stating I have no interest whatsoever in their company -- again, the interview process was mutual -- but they are claiming that confidentiality regulations prevent them disclosing it. This is a small startup but they do have an adult CEO.

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I'm not a lawyer (I'm a recruiter), and during my initial training years ago I was under the impression that the recruiter wasn't obligated to say who gave the bad reference, but was obligated to reveal the information provided that led to the decision not to hire. This was a long time ago (and not in NY).

As far as your approach, telling a company you have no interest in them doesn't increase their incentive to basically do you a favor. Most companies will take "I'm not interested in working for you" as a bit of an insult to the company, so leadership isn't likely to go out of their way to help you once you've said that (regardless of the other circumstances you've described). It comes across as sour grapes at this point.

That would concern me a lot. I understand why you want to know, but if I was interviewing you, and you asked afterwards who gave a bad reference & emphasized you're no longer interested in the job you just interviewed for, and started discussing taking the company to court... I'd feel I just dodged a bullet in not hiring you. It's a really bad look, I wouldn't want to get entangled in your personal issues.

It sucks, but I think you need to move on from this one.

That all hinges on whether or not the story about the 'bad feedback' was real or not. If it was real the company has no blame, if they made it up and tarnished his rep without cause then that would be something else entirely.

There's no incentive for the hiring manager to invent it. "Not technically qualified," "poor company fit," "we made an offer to a more highly qualified candidate," are all just as easy to say, legitimately, and do not expose the company to any liability.

If you want legal advice you should simply call a lawyer. Stuff like this is so dependent on where you are that a forum like this is likely going to give you outright wrong advice. Spend the $100 and talk to a lawyer and get some real answers about your position, if they're supportive you might get them to draft you a letter to put the pressure on.

Wouldn't that cost a lot more than $100?

> Do I literally have to take them to court to find out?

Let it go. You've stated elsewhere you nearly damaged a friendship over this. Don't go full Don Quixote.

You can go to court, but you have no legal right to the information. All you will do is waste your money.

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