Posted by admin on July 27, 2010 under Client Alerts | 
The State of New Hampshire announced last week that, beginning August 2, 2010, the Merrimack County Superior Court clerk’s office will be closed to the public daily from 1:00 to 4:00PM. Court staff will use the time to focus on reducing critical backlogs. According to the Judicial Branch, “no telephone or counter service will be available to lawyers, litigants or the public in the clerk’s office during those hours.” An automated phone system will be monitored for emergency situations and a “drop box” will be available in the courthouse for document filings.
Read more here.
Posted by admin on July 12, 2010 under Screening News |
We read an interesting story online about how in various parts of California, employers are considering removing the felony conviction box on many job applications. The Bay Citizen reported that a handful of city and county employers are advocating a “ban the box” approach on their job applications. They are even citing studies showing that ex-offender employment reduces recidivism by as much as 50 percent.
The article extensively quotes Linda Evans, the executive director of All of Us or None, a national organizing initiative of prisoners, former prisoners and felons, to combat discrimination. Evans’ comments perpetuate a false negative impression of the background screening industry by stating that employers and background screening companies are prohibited from examining more than seven years into an applicant’s criminal record under the Fair Credit Act. “Background check companies are not following the law, and don’t always update [records] every 30 days, so their records can be full of errors, Evans said. “But they just get away with it because no one’s enforcing [the law].”
The truth is that background screening companies are actually not prohibited under the FCRA from examining more than seven years into an applicant’s criminal record. In fact, under the auspices of the FCRA, background screening companies can examine records as far back as they like. What’s prohibited is the reporting of certain pieces of information more than seven years old; however, criminal conviction information is NOT one of them. Evans’ claim that background check companies do not follow the law by updating their records is a claim that is an overgeneralization at the very least.
This “ban the box” initiative means that those employers adopting this measure will need to better apply the 2009 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regulation to ensure that any past criminal history is directly related to the position for which they are being considered. Companies, municipalities and other organizations considering this measure need to heavily consider the implications of foregoing this critical element of upfront information gathering. If a candidate is advanced through the hiring process, only to wash out due to criminal history that applies to the position, companies will needlessly lose their invested time, money and effort.
Questions? Please contact Corporate Screening Support at 800-229-8606 and select option 3, or contact your Account Representative.
Posted by admin on July 1, 2010 under Client Alerts |
Today, several E-Verify state law provisions go into effect, impacting employers in South Carolina, Mississippi, and Utah. Two of the provisions further expand existing E-Verify laws, while the third brings yet another state into the growing patchwork of E-Verify requirements.
Read more here.
Posted by admin on June 30, 2010 under Client Alerts |
Effective July 1, 2010, the New York State Office of Court Administration (OCA) statewide criminal history record search fee is increasing from $55 to $65 per search. The search results are public records relating to open/pending and convictions of criminal cases originating from County/Supreme, City, Town and Village courts of all 62 counties.
Read more here.
Posted by admin on June 25, 2010 under Client Alerts |
The Federal Trade Commission’s final regulations that relate to the obligations of furnishers who provide information to consumer reporting agencies (CRA) goes into effect next Thursday, July 1st. Under the Fair and Accurate Transaction Act (FACT Act), which amended the Fair Credit Reporting Act, companies that provide information to CRA’s are required to establish written policies regarding the “accuracy and integrity” of information furnished to the CRA. This includes employers who provide reference/employment verification or other information about their current and former employees to background screening companies.
Read more here.
Posted by admin on May 25, 2010 under CS News |
A Newsletter for the clients of Corporate Screening. Read the full newsletter here.
Posted by admin on under Client Alerts |
All state courts will be closed Friday, May 28th for the second of three furlough days this spring. The shut downs are part of an agreement to avoid layoffs and help patch up a state budget gap. Court workers accepted the furloughs as part of a compromise to avoid layoffs and help the judicial system move closer to a proposed $3.1 million in savings.
Rest assured that Corporate Screening will do everything possible in order to minimize delays that might be incurred due to the closures.
Posted by admin on May 24, 2010 under CS News |
Corporate Screening has earned recognition for the second year in a row as a 2010 Crain’s Leading EDGE award winner. The award was presented by Crain’s Cleveland Business and the Entrepreneur’s EDGE (Economic Development through Growth & Entrepreneurship) on Wednesday, May 19th, at the InterContinental Hotel and Conference Center.
“We are thrilled that Corporate Screening has been recognized in back-to-back years as an industry leader with the Leading EDGE award,” said Greg Dubecky, General Manager of Corporate Screening. “The metrics utilized in the scoring of this award demonstrate value to the community, so we are grateful to be recognized as a positive force affecting Northeast Ohio.”
The Entrepreneur’s EDGE selected 85 winners based upon a metric that enables the region to measure and track companies throughout the 17 counties of Northeast Ohio that are creating the most value for themselves as well as for the community. Qualifying companies have sales revenue up to $750 million and currently sell some of their goods or services outside the region, or have plans to do so.
Posted by admin on May 20, 2010 under News Alert |
A bill was recently introduced to enhance the otherwise deficient criminal record database maintained by the FBI. While this bill will not do much to increase reporting of new crimes it will work to update the criminal records that do get reported. You see, this database includes approximately 50% of all criminal histories that are available from the thousands of criminal record repositories in the U.S. Further, of the records that are available, less than 50% contain information that can be used in an employment decision. The simple reason being is that the records are incomplete or stale and do not contain up-to-the-day disposition information. Imagine the ramifications of making a hiring decision on arrest information that did not result in a conviction. This occurs more than frequently and opens an employer up to significant risk.
So, if you are an employer that is required to screen your employees through the FBI criminal database, be sure all records reported by the FBI are thoroughly researched at the originating court. It is the opinion of CS that we do not need legislation to require courts to report disposition information to the FBI, we need responsible Consumer Reporting Agencies like Corporate Screening to educate employers on the use and misuse of this information and the wherewithal to update criminal record reports prior to reporting to their customers.
See full article below.
Bill would require FBI to fill in gaps in criminal records database
A bill introduced in the House would strengthen the accuracy of the FBI’s criminal records database by requiring the U.S. Attorney General’s Office to verify that crime data is up to date. Employers rely on the database to conduct background checks on potential hires.
The 2010 Fairness and Accuracy in Employment Background Checks Act would require the attorney general to find out from court offices, including those in state and local jurisdictions, the outcome of arrests whenever an employer requests a background check, and update that record in the National Crime Information Center database. In cases where the attorney general discovers an arrest was dismissed in court, he has 10 days to update the record before responding to the employer’s request.
Employers often consult the NCIC database to conduct background checks on individuals applying for jobs in law enforcement, homeland security or organizations where they’d be working with vulnerable populations, such as children and the elderly. Typically only public sector entities can request FBI background checks, though certain private sector companies — such as those supporting federal homeland security efforts.
Bobby Scott, D-Va., chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, introduced the bill on May 13 in response to a June 2006 report from the attorney general that showed nearly 50 percent of criminal records maintained in the NCIC database failed to note court decisions to dismiss arrests.
“In the current economy, neither employers nor workers can afford employment background records that are inaccurate or incomplete,” Scott said in a statement e-mailed to Nextgov.
The legislation would give job applicants the opportunity to obtain a copy of records provided to a potential employer and challenge their accuracy and completeness. If the records are challenged, the attorney general would have 30 days to complete an investigation, make changes or deletions, and report those changes to the applicant and the employer.
“An incomplete and error-riddled criminal database cannot be the reason qualified workers don’t earn a paycheck,” Edward Wytkind, president of the AFL-CIO’s transportation trades department, said in a statement. “This problem must get fixed. Workers and businesses — as well as our economy — suffer when qualified employees are kept off the job by uncorrected database errors.”
Posted by admin on April 12, 2010 under Client Alerts |
We have been notified by the FBI that because of the background checks that are being processed for the U.S. Census Bureau, those background checks submitted by state agencies between April 28th and May 3rd, 2010 will not be processed until the week of May 4th, 2010. This will create a temporary, two-week backlog. Read more here.
