by Rod Fliegel and Garrick Chan - Littler

Background check industry groups have mounted a full-court press to remedy the recent slowdown in criminal record searches in California state courts caused by last year’s court of appeal decision in All of Us or None v. Hamrick. As a result of this decision, companies doing business in California can no longer rely on their background check companies to provide criminal record searches routinely for courts in various counties, including Los Angeles. The court of appeal’s opinion did not involve an employment dispute, but had a significant incidental effect on employment screening by impeding the process that background check companies use to “match” candidates to court records. Such matching is required by the fair credit reporting laws, including the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). If enacted, Senate Bill (SB) 1262 should reverse the slowdown by again allowing public access to the “identifiers” that background check companies use in the matching process, including the defendant’s date of birth.