As the economy rebounds, you may be looking closely at ex-employees who departed on good terms. But poorly managed rehiring can result in reduced productivity and morale. Plus, you face the possibility of discrimination lawsuits from rejected internal applicants. Here are six common rehiring mistakes:

Q. I just found out that an employee filed for bankruptcy. I’m concerned, because she works a cash register and has access to money. Can I fire this employee?

Q. Another company has requested a reference for an employee that we fired. The company has a signed form giving the employee’s written consent to ask us for a reference. Will we have legal problems if we provide negative information about the employee?

Q. I’ve never required background checks on any job applicants. To get a better understanding of whom we’re hiring, I’ve retained a professional screening company to begin vetting our candidates for things such as criminal convictions. Are there any specific protocols we should be following?

The Internet continues to make HR’s job of verifying résumé claims almost impossible. As job-seekers have become more desperate in the past year, a host of new online services have emerged that help applicants falsify their résumés.

Recent workplace shootings in Orlando, Fla., and Fort Hood serve as powerful reminders that employers must heed signs that an employee could act out and harm co-workers or supervisors. There were 768 violence-related deaths in the workplace in 2008. Despite those disturbing numbers, many employers stick their heads in the sand. They put their assets and employees at risk by gambling that “it couldn’t happen here.”

Q. Currently, we don’t do any background investigations on job applicants. I’m considering instituting an informal background-screening program, whereby my HR director would conduct a Google search for every job applicant, in addition to looking at any Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace pages. I can’t imagine there’s any legal risk in researching information that is already publicly available on the Internet, right?

Since 2007, the EEOC has been engaged in a major push to stamp out race-based discrimination in hiring. Known as E-RACE, the initiative’s goal is to “eliminate recruiting and hiring practices that lead to discrimination by limiting an employer’s applicant pool.” When targeting employers for enforcement action, the EEOC often zeroes in on four recruitment and screening practices:

Q. I recently received an inquiry for a reference regarding a former employee. Does the job reference law alter what I should disclose regarding this person’s employment history?

The EEOC has cited national convention marketing firm Freeman Companies with discriminatory hiring practices based on the company’s use of applicants’ credit scores and criminal background checks in hiring. The EEOC alleges the company’s hiring practices have a disparate impact on minorities and women.

As the effects of the recession linger on, personal bankruptcy filings are still climbing. If you’re a private employer that doesn’t want to hire managers who can’t handle their financial affairs, be careful before rejecting someone because he’s filed for bankruptcy.

Q. Our job application doesn’t ask for the applicant’s age or date of birth. However, we plan to start conducting background checks on job applicants we’re seriously considering. The company that will conduct the checks for us said the birth date is on all the applications they see and that it’s instrumental to conducting the checks. What should we do?

The EEOC has cited national convention marketing firm Freeman Companies with discriminatory hiring practices based on the company’s use of applicants’ credit scores and criminal background checks in hiring. According to the complaint, the credit and criminal background checks are neither job related nor of business necessity. The EEOC alleges they screen out otherwise qualified women and minority candidates.

You no doubt get many applications for open positions—especially with unemployment running as high as it is. Some of those applicants will have past work-related problems—and a few might have long, checkered histories. When you reject such applicants, be ready to show why you hired someone with a better record instead.