The FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act), which is the primary federal law regulating background screening, limits the information a third party such as a credit bureau or a background check firm can pass on to an employer. Section 605 of the FCRA prohibits a background screening company from reporting the following:
- Bankruptcy cases that antedate the report by more than 10 years.
- Paid tax liens that antedate the report by more than seven years.
- Accounts placed for collection or charged to profit and loss that antedate the report by more than seven years.
- Civil suits and civil judgments that antedate the report by more than seven years.
- Any arrest record older than seven years.
- Any other adverse information, other than records of convictions, which antedate the report by more than seven years. This basically means that under federal law, all conviction records can be reported.
Note: For employees reasonably expected to earn $75,000 or more per year, the above time limits do not apply. For more information about the FCRA, here is the link to the entire Fair Credit Reporting Act.
Most states abide by the FCRA including the Commonwealth of Virginia and Washington, D.C. (which isn’t really a state, and obviously has to follow all federal guidelines). However in some states like Maryland for example, even more restrictions are applied to what can be reported. In the state of Maryland, if an employee is expected to make less than $20,000 per year, records of convictions of crimes which antedate the report by more than 7 years cannot be reported.
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