Q: DOES AN APPLICATION HAVE LEGAL STANDING IF THERE ARE HIDDEN OR NO TERMS AND AGREEMENTS?

A: Employment applications are invitations to be considered for employment. They are not contracts nor do they guarantee that someone will be considered for a job. Many require certifications that accurate, complete, and truthful information is being provided under penalties of perjury.

Job applicants sometimes don't consider that hiding information from an application can be disastrous down the line. A discriminated employee with an incomplete or untruthful application might not recover employment discrimination damages. A second chance is often denied to an applicant who was not truthful on their application. The deceitful applicant makes her or himself a priority for termination if the employer needs to reduce its workforce and is looking for employees who probably gave up the few protections they may have had.

Most employment laws do not protect "at will" employees with "unclean hands".

Few employers sue their own employees for employment application misrepresentation. But terminating employees who were not completely honest on them is usually a no-brainer.

A: I am not an employment law attorney. Mr. Urba's excellent response addresses your question in an employment law context. You also chose categories outside employment, including contract and business law. Under GENERAL contract law theory, where contracts are silent as to certain provisions and ambiguity is created, that can sometimes be a grey area. Rather than having a quick universal standard to apply, courts may look at the context of the entire situation in interpreting an ambiguity or lack of certainty against one side or the other. Good luck

Tim Akpinar