General FCRA Compliance Information and Guidelines
TruDiligence Knowledgebase – Background Check Services
TruDiligence Knowledgebase – Background Check Services
TruDiligence takes seriously the need for compliance with all applicable federal, state and local laws and regulations. This page is meant to be a resource from which you can visit links to regulatory sites, obtain answers to your questions and download compliance-related release forms and documents. However, we are not attorneys, so nothing on this page is intended to be legal opinion or advice. We strongly recommend that you consult with legal counsel regarding your specific circumstances.
The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), 15 U.S.C. 1681 et seq., is designed to protect individuals by promoting accuracy, fairness and privacy of information in the file of every consumer reporting agency. Consumer reporting agencies typically are thought of as credit bureaus, such as Experian, Equifax and TransUnion, which collect and report information on consumers. However, background screening firms such as TruDiligence also are classified as consumer reporting agencies by the FCRA. A common misconception is that the FCRA regulations apply only to reports that contain credit information. This is untrue. The FCRA actually applies to all background screening conducted through a third-party consumer reporting agency.
The complete text of the FCRA is available here.
Outlined below are the specific procedures that must be followed when ordering a report from a consumer reporting agency that is subject to FCRA compliance:
NOTE: Steps 7-10 are used only when an employer is considering an adverse employment action.
Employers should be aware that the FCRA (as well as state law) places limitations on information that can be reported by a background screening company. Section 605 of the FCRA prohibits a background screening company from reporting the following:
For employees reasonably expected to earn $75,000 or more per year, the above time limits do not apply. Employers also should be aware that, in addition to the limitations found in the FCRA, a number of states place limitations on what information may be reported by background screening companies. Information commonly prohibited includes arrest records, convictions that antedate the report by a specified numbers of years, dismissed cases and discharged cases.
Compliance Based Research Policies
FCRA Sections 607 and 613 further address the need for accuracy in reporting information for employment purposes. Specifically, this relates to information that is derived from searching independent or third-party databases that are not government owned or sponsored. Examples include, but may not be limited to, the National Criminal Index and National Sex Offender registries.
To strictly comply with the FCRA, if a search of one of these included databases is conducted and a reportable record is found, a direct county-level court record search will be conducted. This county-level research will validate the information being reported back by the database, thus maintaining the strictest FCRA compliance. The necessary county-level searches will be automatically added and billed accordingly.
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