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
[WEBINAR] Exploring the CPRA’s Investigatory Privilege
Devil in the Details: Gilbert King on Truth and Transparency in the Judicial Process
How to Conduct Criminal Background Checks the Right Way
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
Under a Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) proposed rule published April 10, new procedural protections would apply to criminal history screening of rental applicants to HUD-assisted housing....more
The County of Los Angeles has announced a new Fair Chance Ordinance, taking effect on September 3, 2024, that will regulate the consideration of criminal history information by employers with five or more employees in...more
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors recently passed the Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers (“Ordinance”), L.A. Cnty. Code § 8.300 et seq., in an effort to ensure “individuals with criminal records have fair and...more
When is an offense a covered “offense” under the Wisconsin Fair Employment Act’s (WFEA) prohibition against arrest record discrimination? This was the question answered by the Wisconsin Court of Appeals in its recent decision...more
New York has enacted the Clean Slate Act, effective November 16, 2024, which will provide for the automatic sealing of certain criminal history records. Upon sealing, the records will be unavailable to most employers in a...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: On November 16, 2023, New York became the 12th state to enact “Clean Slate” legislation, which allows certain criminal records to be sealed after an individual is sentenced or released from incarceration,...more
On Nov. 16, 2023, New York State Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation, also known as the Clean Slate Act, to automatically seal from public access criminal records for most individuals convicted of a crime....more
On November 16, 2023, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed a bill into law requiring records of certain past criminal convictions to be sealed. The legislation is intended in part to prevent discrimination in hiring against...more
The California Civil Rights Council (CRD) (formerly the DFEH) has issued new regulations that modify the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), the law that governs how and when California employers can consider a job...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
This summer the California Civil Rights Council approved modified regulations pertaining to California’s Fair Chance Act. These modifications take effect on October 1, 2023. Employers should remember the following as these...more
The California Office of Administrative Law approved the Civil Rights Council’s proposed amendments to regulations regarding consideration of criminal history in employment. Effective October 1, 2023, employers must comply...more
California’s Civil Rights Council (the Council), a branch of the California Civil Rights Department, issued proposed revisions, earlier this year, to the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) regulations governing an...more
For many years, California employers have been subject to the state’s Fair Chance Act, which (in a nutshell) requires employers to...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 December 23, 2022, President Biden signed into law H.R. 7776, the “James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023” (the “NDAA 2023”). What many may not yet realize is that Section 5705 of the NDAA...more
On Jan. 12, 2023, the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey held in Ramos v. WalMart, Inc. that Pennsylvania plaintiffs have up to six years to file claims against employers for improper use of criminal history...more
Included in the defense spending bill signed by President Biden in December 2022 is a section with key provisions for financial institutions that will ease restrictions on hiring candidates with criminal records....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
Beginning July 1, 2023, SB 731 will provide for the automatic sealing of certain felony criminal records. Arrests that do not result in conviction will also be sealed....more
Following a trend in California regarding increased leniency for those with conviction records, and ensuring that formerly incarcerated people are not unduly burdened by their past, Governor Newsom recently signed SB-731 into...more
A May 2021 court decision in California, All of Us or None v. Hamrick, caused significant background check delays in some California county courts and left background check companies unable to report some criminal record...more