RELIABLE BACKGROUND SCREENING INDUSTRY NEWS AND ARTICLES

It was just about a year ago when I wrote how the “Ban the Box” movement was gaining traction in various states and cities around the nation. Well the march of jurisdictions continuing to implement some degree of limitations upon employers — regarding asking job applicants about their criminal history on initial job applications — has not abated. In the past month, New York City and the state of Oregon both signed into law their respective legislation that “Bans the Box,” while the city of Daytona Beach, Florida actually implemented their version of the law. In New York City, the Fair Chance [...]

On June 25, 2015, the Supreme Court in a 5-4 ruling upheld a Court of Appeals decision that Disparate Impact is applicable under the Fair Housing Act. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the opinion for the majority in the case of Texas Department of Housing Community Affairs v. The Inclusive Communities Project, Inc. According to Justice Kennedy, “the underlying dispute in this case concerns where housing for low-income persons should be constructed in Dallas, Texas — that is, whether the housing should be built in the inner city or in the suburbs.” It was argued that federal tax credits issued to developers to [...]

Michael Stores, the recipient of three separate class action lawsuits for alleged violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA – the federal law that regulates employee background checks, and which imposes significant rules and disclosure requirements upon employers), will now have a consolidated venue of New Jersey for all three federal cases. Last month, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation ordered that the District of New Jersey become the venue for all three lawsuits. In New Jersey, Judge Kevin McNulty was the first to preside over any of the cases, since this case was the first one that was filed (the [...]

As I have been writing for well over a year, Fair Credit Reporting Act class action lawsuits (FCRA – the federal law that governs employee background checks, and which places very specific disclosure requirements upon employers) have been and are continuing. In Brown v. Delhaize America, LLC, the Food Lion parent company agreed to settle for $3 million, and it is easy to understand why. With nearly 60,000 total class members, the Food Lion parent company was facing a potential liability of nearly $60 million in statutory damages, plus punitive damages and attorneys’ fees. Thus a settlement that equates to about 5 [...]