Employers often seek background information about applicants and employees as part of standard due diligence during the hiring process or in connection with other employment decisions. The Fair Credit Reporting Act serves as the primary legal framework guiding these efforts. However, state and local laws that overlap and intersect with the FCRA’s requirements have proliferated in recent years. New York State and New York City employers face perhaps the greatest burden in navigating these competing paradigms, because compliance with one does not ensure compliance with another.

The FCRA is a federal law, the most broadly applicable and, therefore, the most useful starting point. The FCRA sets forth specific requirements that govern an employer’s procurement and use of background reports containing a variety of information, such as criminal records, credit reports and education history, when making employment decisions. The FCRA is designed to protect the due process rights of the subject of a report and sets forth a notice and opportunity to dispute framework. The FCRA establishes three critical time periods, each of which carry hypertechnical requirements, the most notable of which are addressed here for context.

Originally published in Law360 on February 20, 2018.