I just had a client call me for a legal opinion.
I’m not a lawyer, and smart enough to admit that to anyone that will listen to me. AND her question was about laws and ordinances in the city of Los Angeles, state of California. I got out my ten-foot pole, gave her my lay person’s opinion, reiterated that I’m not a lawyer, and suggested she call the company attorneys before she thought either she or I were smart enough to navigate the amusement park ride that is pre-employment screening regulations in that particular jurisdiction.
But I will offer you this, some common landmines that are 101 to avoid.
- Check Your Forms. It is the prospective employer’s responsibility (not the screening company) to comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act as well as a myriad of state and local laws. Beware of potential class action failures. Those class action participants may pursue penalties for basic FCRA violations, such as failing to use FCRA forms or failing to provide applicants with proper notice before making an adverse decision based on the results of the investigation.
- Review Ban the Box laws. Ban the box laws or Fair Chance laws have been around for a long time, but it’s a good refresher. They continually evolve on the landscape depending on your jurisdiction. And for those that may NOT know, ban the box refers to the box that existed on every application many years ago: Have you ever been convicted? Have you ever been arrested?
- Clean Slate Laws. In the same vein as Ban the Box, Clean slate laws, meant to help people with criminal records access better jobs through the automatic expungement or sealing of criminal records after a certain amount of time has passed, are poised to spread to more states. To date, 10 states have passed such laws, and there are active campaigns in many more. Clean slate laws can cover a broad range of actions, from allowing people to apply for record clearing to an automatic wiping of records.
Why the concern over clean slate laws? If your background screener depends on a database for their records, be sure they can tell you that database is up to date. Best practice dictates your background screener should use that as a “pointer”, to then go to the court of original jurisdiction to confirm any records a database uncovers.
Questions about any of the above? Call me at (833) 424-3257 or (612) 743-0240. Coming in December we will celebrate the 12 Days of Background Checks.
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For further updates, email Ann@CEBackgroundchecks.com
