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CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECK FOR EMPLOYMENT AND ITS LIMITATIONS

9-Jul-2021

Criminal background check is an important concern for the employer. More the position is vital; more emphasis is given for such criminal background checks. There are national standards set by the federal fair credit reporting act (FCRA) for such background checks.

These regulations are applied for the background check service providing companies, as well as the employer conducting criminal background check employment. Well, such rules are relaxed if the employer conducts the background check by it own.

Limitations assigned:

When it comes to the employment criminal background check, the concerned service providing agency can prepare bankruptcy report going back only up to ten years in history.One can enquire going back seven years for the civil suits, history of arrests, civil judgments, paid tax liens, etc. In fact, any other negative information about applicant or employer can be considered only if it has been committed in between seven years.

However, this seven-year restriction is not applied in those cases where the applicant is convicted of some crime. In fact, these reporting constraints are not applied for the jobs involving salary package of 75k dollars or more than that in a year. Most of the states follow the seven years restriction, though. Anyone can know about the restrictions of such by connecting with the employment agencies of the concerned state.

Can the arrest information be received?

Arrest information about the applicant is an important part of criminal background check for employment that needs to be considered. These arrest reports are in general considered as the public records.

However, some states have the rules that an employer can’t look for such reports from any mean, about the arrest history of an applicant. Anyway, in those occasions where the person is convicted, or in those occasions where the candidate is on a bail, such information can be delivered or considered for employment.

Any company would love to have as extensive detail about the criminal history of the person as it is possible.

These criminal histories are usually prepared by the law enforcement agencies. In other words, these are not the public records. Apart from key employment purpose, such information is not provided to anyone. However, certain service providers prepare false

criminal histories for professional gain. An employer needs to be really careful prior believing such reports.

Bankruptcy:

Talking about bankruptcies, these are also not the public records. Well, such detail can be gathered by an employer for employment purpose. However, the employer should inform the applicant through notifications if it decides to take any kind of negative information against him/her based on this.

Moreover, both the employer and applicant should be very sure about the source through which the service provider collects those data. This is important as best background check service providers collect data through online sources, those are often not verified. Actions taken based on this can certainly create issues for them later in future.

For example, someone might have been arrested for a bankruptcy issue or something like that. But, it doesn’t really mean that he is convicted. Hence, the data collecting agency should check authentication of any information it collects.

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