Declining a job offer after acceptance [duplicate]

Question

This question already has an answer here:

• How to decline an already accepted offer, professionally and politely, if I want to accept counteroffer from current employer? 4 answers
• How to renege implicit verbal acceptance of a job offer 4 answers

A bit of context: due to corporate restructuring I will not have a job in a couple of months.

So I have been searching for a job and I already have few promising interviews lined up. But I got an offer already and they are pressing me to either accept or decline very soon.

I was thinking of accepting it. At least it will give me some certainty, but I also expect better opportunities before the start date of the offered job.

I was wondering how bad it accepted the offer, then declined in a couple of weeks (before starting there). Can there be any legal implications even if I didn't see any such thing in the offer letter?

Answer 1

If there is no contract then there wouldn't be any legal issues with declining after accepting. It will look bad and you probably would have a hard time getting a job at that company in the future if you wanted to go back to them. But it won't land you in jail or court.