The Risks in Background Checks
Current Trends in FCRA Litigation - The Consumer Finance Podcast
AGG Talks: Background Screening - Ban the Box and Fair Chance Hiring Laws: The Year in Review
AGG Talks: Background Screening - Redaction of Identifiers by the Courts Update, Breaking News from California
AGG Talks: Background Screening - Redaction of Identifiers by the Courts in Michigan and California Pose Challenges for Background Checks
Driving While Ability Impaired (DWAI) is a serious offense in Colorado that can have far-reaching consequences. Many individuals who face this charge wonder about its long-term impact, particularly when it comes to employment...more
Employers commonly conduct background checks on prospective employees in various areas that they may think relevant when deciding whether to hire an individual for a job. Yet, federal, state, and local laws are increasingly...more
Last month, the new chair of the EEOC, Charlotte A. Burrows, was the keynote speaker at a conference regarding new research on criminal recidivism....more
On March 23, 2021, Governor J.B. Pritzker signed Senate Bill 1480 (SB 1480), which amends the Illinois Human Rights Act to impose robust new restrictions and obligations on employers’ use of background checks in Illinois. The...more
Class action litigation brought under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is on the rise—particularly in California—after the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a 2017 decision applying a hypertechnical...more
Most employers run background checks on prospective employees when hiring. Some employers have policies in place that allow them to conduct background checks on current employees. ...more
On August 6, 2019, in State of Texas v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) overstepped its limited rulemaking...more
Over 33 states and 150 cities, counties and municipalities have enacted Ban-the Box laws that prohibit employers from asking about an applicant’s criminal record or criminal history prior to the applicant being selected for...more
Employers that use criminal record-screening policies must continue to be vigilant about compliance with all applicable laws and should know that the EEOC’s scrutiny of such policies, while perhaps scaled back, has not ended....more
Every year, an increasing number of states and localities clamp down on an employer’s ability to ask about applicants’ criminal histories (our update from earlier this year provides a good primer). The good news is that...more
With potential deregulation at the federal level and variance among the states, keeping up with employment law can be challenging. Here are some brief answers to employment-related questions frequently asked by corporate...more
Factory recalls have become a fact of life for those who sell and drive vehicles. The scenarios have a common theme: a vehicle part does not operate as designed or is determined to present a possible risk of failure. Once...more
When it comes to legislation restricting employer use of criminal records, California seems to be leading the charge. In the last six months alone, we have reported on a variety of new laws that apply to California employers...more
Now that Massachusetts has barred its employers’ from asking job applicants about salary information, and Connecticut has joined the “Ban the Box” trend (prohibiting employers from asking applicants about arrests and...more
By now, most employers are familiar with the requirements of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and understand how it impacts background checks and applicant screening. In short, FCRA says that if an employer uses a third...more
Failure to WARN Alleged in Complaint Against Yahoo - Why it matters - In a novel lawsuit, a former employee of Yahoo claims that the company manipulated its performance-review rating system in order to dodge both...more
Legislative Update - Governor Brown recently signed into state law the following employment law bills (among others): SB 358—Referred to as the California Fair Pay Act, this law is directed at closing the pay...more
FTC Offers Employers Lesson in FCRA Compliance—And Limited Exceptions - Why it matters: A California employer recently received a lesson in Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) compliance from the Federal Trade...more
After several high-profile setbacks in disparate impact discrimination lawsuits challenging criminal record screening policies, the EEOC has entered into a settlement (consent decree) in one of its few remaining cases, a...more
I am a longtime advocate of pre-employment criminal background checks. So I have watched with resigned acceptance as the EEOC, over 100 states and cities across the United States, and other public advocates have fought to...more
A federal appellate court recently reinstated a lawsuit brought by a dining services employee who claimed that she was sexually harassed by a male coworker. According to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, a reasonable jury...more
THE INCREASING DANGER OF BACKGROUND CHECKS - New Laws and Emerging Privacy Rights Complicate an Already Difficult Process. The intersection of privacy laws and employment practices can be a dangerous one. Employers...more
Is the government really telling employers that they are not allowed to disqualify an applicant because of past criminal activity? In a word, yes. That is increasingly becoming the case on the state level and has been the...more
WHO to Hire? Startup companies can reduce or eliminate future problems with employees through careful hiring practices. Best practices include...more
In 1998 Hawaii became the first state to pass a so-called "ban-the-box" law, prohibiting both private- and public-sector employers from inquiring about an applicant's conviction history until after the employer makes a...more