RELIABLE BACKGROUND SCREENING INDUSTRY NEWS AND ARTICLES

New York City, later this week (as of September 3, 2015) will restrict the use of credit reports as part of the employment hiring decision. Except under limited circumstances, it will be illegal for employers to utilize and consider an individual’s consumer credit history in the employment process – be it at initial hire, or later during the employment process, i.e., to determine future compensation, job promotion, etc. New York City joins ten states that have some type of legislation which curtail the use of credit reports in the employee hiring process. Those states include: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, Oregon, [...]

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 [...]