Showing Posts In "Legal Issues" Category

How to Adapt to Shifting Background Check Regulations: A Guide for Employers

A study was recently conducted by Checkr to gain an understanding of concerns and challenges of ever-changing federal and state laws regarding background checks. The first concern is remaining compliant with Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) regulations and Clean Slate laws that have popped up across the county over the past several years. The study […]

Background Screening Legislative Trends to Watch in 2024

Several new employment laws were introduced last year and Sterling’s 2023 compliance webinar, in partnership with SHRM, addressed the ways in which employers can leverage these trends to help organizations mitigate risk. A few topics to be aware of include adverse action, drug testing, and industrial and regional regulations. Things to keep an eye on […]

Magistrate Judge Recommends No FCRA Liability for Accurately Reporting a Publicly Available Conviction That Was Expunged

The plaintiff in Peeples v. National Data Research, Inc. (NDR) applied to a pre-med program and was required to complete a background check from NDR as part of the application process. The plaintiff sued NDR when it failed to remove an expunged conviction from the report. The judge recommended granting summary judgment in the Fair […]

Massachusetts State Appeals Court Orders a Consumer has Standing to Sue in State Court Under the FCRA Without Federal Standing

The Massachusetts Court of Appeals has ordered that an employee has standing to sue in state court, despite lacking standing to use in a federal court. The decision followed a case in which the employee sued a prospective employer for allegedly conducting a background check in a manner that violated the FCRA.

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CFPB and FTC File Amicus Brief Urging Fourth Circuit to Find FCRA Requires Investigation Regardless of Whether Dispute is Factual or Legal

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed an amici curiae brief urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to reverse a district court’s finding that furnishers need not investigate indirect disputes involving purely legal questions under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The move followed the court’s […]

Battle for Online Court Access in Virginia Rages at Fourth Circuit

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals recently heard the argument of Courthouse News, which claimed Virginia’s restrictions on who can access the Officer of the Court Remote Access system violates the First Amendment. The lawyer representing the publication stated that access is “too much of a burden for any member of the press to cover […]

Looking for Skeletons in the Closet? Avoid These Background Check Mistakes

Common mistakes in background screening can lead to some pretty scary lawsuits or fines for companies. A few of these include failing to provide required disclosures or obtain proper consent, not being consistent, ignoring additional state-specific requirements, failing to warn of a potentially adverse act, failing to provide final adverse action notice, and failing to […]

Lawsuit: Uber Driver Drugged and Raped Passengers, Leading to Woman’s Suicide

A complaint was filed by the father of a woman who was drugged and raped by an Uber driver in 2020. The woman would go on to take her own life following the incident and her father said the San Francisco-based Uber and its subsidiary Rasier LLC were negligent for failing to do more thorough […]

FTC Settles FCRA Suit Against ‘People-Search’ Companies

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has reached a settlement with two California-based “people-search” companies, resolving charges that the companies engaged in practices that violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). In the original complaint, the FTC alleged that the companies made millions of dollars through illegal activities, such as the use of deceptive marketing practices […]

FTC Says TruthFinder, Instant Checkmate Deceived Users About Background Report Accuracy, Violated FCRA While Marketing Reports for Employee and Tenant Screening

TruthFinder and Instant Checkmate have been ordered to pay $5.8 million by the Federal Trade Commission for deceiving consumers about whether consumers had criminal records. In addition, they were found to have violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) by operating as consumer reporting agencies while failing to ensure the maximum possible accuracy on their […]