RELIABLE BACKGROUND SCREENING INDUSTRY NEWS AND ARTICLES

If someone told you that you could obtain information that would help you select the best-qualified franchisee applicants… and that if you plan correctly, you can do this at no “out-of-pocket” expense to you, the franchisor, would it not be a “no-brainer” for you to do? Well yes, there is a “free lunch” after all. Since franchisors typically collect a significant Franchise Fee as part of their franchisee onboarding process, Franchisee Screening should never really be an expense to the franchisor. The cost for Franchisee Screening can be added to or incorporated into the Franchise Fee, or it can be listed as [...]

Last week the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was handed another defeat in its ongoing attempts to exert its control in the area of employee background checks. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit denied the EEOC’s claim of Disparate Impact in EEOC v. Freeman, No. 13-2365. This decision affirms the ruling from last August, where in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, Judge Roger Titus dismissed the EEOC’s case due to it using unreliable expert analysis. The EEOC had alleged that Freeman, Inc. had illegally employed background checks, resulting in a Disparate Impact on African-Americans and [...]

As I predicted in December, FCRA class action lawsuits are continuing as we enter the new year. It took only 7 days into 2015 for an FCRA Class Action complaint to be filed – this time, the targeted company is Paramount Pictures Corporation. On January 7, 2015, the Dion-Kindem Law Firm filed a class action complaint and demand for a jury trial, on behalf of plaintiff, Michael Peikoff. This proposed class action lawsuit alleges that Paramount Pictures Corporation violated the FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act – the federal law that regulates employee background checks, and which imposes very specific disclosure requirements upon [...]

As 2014 comes to a close, it is clear that the number of class action lawsuits that will undoubtedly be filed in 2015, for violations of the FCRA will continue to rise. The FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act) is the federal law that regulates employee background checks. It imposes upon employers very specific disclosure requirements, both initially when an employee applicant authorizes the background check, and subsequently, if an adverse action (e.g., to not hire or to terminate the employee applicant) is taken based upon the results of the “consumer report”, i.e., the background check report. In 2014 there was a plethora [...]