The Risks in Background Checks
The Clean Slate Act’s Impact on Employers
AGG Talks: Background Screening - Ban the Box and Fair Chance Hiring Laws: The Year in Review
Expungements: A Helping Hand for a Second Chance and New Opportunities
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
#WorkforceWednesday: COVID-19 Restrictions Tighten, NYC Fair Chance Act, Biden's Budget - Employment Law This Week®
How to Conduct Criminal Background Checks the Right Way
[WEBINAR] Labor & Employment Law: What Changed in 2017
"Ban The Box" And Other Laws Limiting An Employer's Use Of Criminal History
LXBN This Week Ep. 2: EEOC on Criminal Records & Transgender Discrimination, BP Oil Spill Arrest, AZ Immigration Law at SCOTUS
A growing number of states and municipalities have passed “fair chance” laws that, to varying degrees, prohibit employers from inquiring into a job applicant’s criminal background during the hiring process or restrict...more
A large convenience store chain recently learned about the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s intention to challenge how employers use arrest and conviction records to make hiring decisions....more
After more than a year of administrative activity pertaining to California’s Fair Chance Act (FCA), the California Civil Rights Council issued final modifications to the FCA’s regulations (the “Revised Regulations”). The...more
Chicago has amended its “Ban the Box” Ordinance (the “Ordinance”) to further align with Illinois law. The Ordinance, which originally took effect in 2015, provides protections for both prospective and current employees....more
On June 10, 2021, Governor Ned Lamont signed into law Connecticut’s “Clean Slate” law, Public Act No. 21-32. The Clean Slate law became effective January 1, 2023, and it provides for the automatic erasure of certain criminal...more
An overwhelming majority of states have adopted what is widely known as “ban-the-box” laws or policies that generally prohibit employers from inquiring about an applicant’s criminal background until later in the hiring...more
On November 15, 2021, the city of Des Moines, Iowa, passed a “ban-the-box” law that will limit employer inquiries and background checks into an applicant’s criminal history until after a conditional offer of employment....more
Q: Ban the Box has been around for several years now, and I know at least one city in Iowa implemented local regulations about background checks. What is the status in Iowa?...more
Hidden deep within the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 2020 is a “ban the box” provision that restricts federal contractors’ inquiries into their applicants’ criminal histories. This new provision, which went...more
The federal Fair Chance to Compete for Jobs Act of 2019 (Fair Chance Act) officially took effect this week on December 20, 2021. The law was signed two years ago as Section 1123 of the National Defense Authorization Act for...more
In this episode, AGG partner and co-chair of the firm’s Data Privacy Practice, Kevin L. Coy, and Data Privacy associate, Erin E. Doyle, discuss the federal Fair Chance to Compete for Jobs Act, provide an overview of state and...more
In December 2021, covered federal contractors may start seeing new or amended solicitations and contract clauses that prohibit them from inquiring into job applicants’ criminal backgrounds. The federal Fair Chance to Compete...more
Companies that hire employees and engage independent contractors in California should brace for a significant slowdown in background checks that include criminal record searches in California state courts....more
In July 2021, Maine enacted a new “ban-the-box” law that limits employer inquiries into an applicant’s criminal history. Under the new law, entitled “An Act Relating to Fair Chance in Employment,” employers are prohibited...more
The California Court of Appeal has ruled that date of birth and/or a driver’s license number cannot be used to identify individuals in an electronic search of the criminal index of court records. All of Us or None v....more
Seyfarth Synopsis: On June 18, 2021, the Iowa Supreme Court upheld a portion of the Waterloo, Iowa ban-the-box law’s restrictions on “when” employers can inquire about criminal history, but struck down restrictions on “what”...more
If the chaos of COVID wiped out all your memory regarding recent employment law changes, a short history lesson is probably in order. Nationally, a number of cities, states, counties, and municipalities decided to change...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
As we previously discussed, Illinois has moved beyond “ban-the-box” and now significantly restricts employers’ ability to consider criminal convictions when making employment decisions. (For more details see our employer’s...more
Illinois recently enacted SB 1480 (or “Law”) which, among other measures, effective immediately, places significant restrictions on the ability of Illinois employers to refuse to hire a job applicant or take adverse action...more
On March 23, 2021, Governor J.B. Pritzker signed a bill (SB1480) that amends the Illinois Human Rights Act (IHRA) to, among other things, impose new requirements on employers that perform criminal history checks on their...more
On January 10, 2021, Int. 1314-A (“Law”) was enacted, and it goes into effect on July 28, 2021. The Law significantly expands job applicants’ protections under New York City’s Fair Chance Act (“FCA”), otherwise known as the...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: On January 20, 2021, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney signed three bills amending the city’s ordinances regulating employer use of criminal and credit history in employment screening. All employers with...more
In 2015, Illinois became one of the first states to enact a “ban the box” law, preventing employers from inquiring about criminal histories on employment applications. The “ban the box” law followed a general prohibition in...more
Effective January 1, 2021, private sector employers with 10 or more employees in the City of St. Louis must comply with Ordinance 71074 (the Ordinance), a ban-the-box ordinance that prohibits employers from asking job...more