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When Criminal Database Background Checks Return Outdated Records

There are employers who will rely solely on a Criminal Database Search to check out their employment candidates.  While these criminal database searches have their advantages, they cover a lot of territory and can return quickly, they also have their pitfalls.   Criminal database searches, for the most part,  are accurate.  But there are times when they do offer to the employer a double edged sword.

When you are hiring labor people and wish to run a quick check, criminal database background searches are very handy.   The Nationwide Criminal Database Search can search background checks in most states and warn you of any criminal records.   The Nationwide Criminal Search is cost effective, a big plus in this economy, and you can hire or reject a candidate, before the job candidate decides to move on to another prospective employer.

However, when you do get a hit, meaning records show on a prospective job candidate, we always advise you to then run the County Criminal Check to follow up and verify that the record is that of the same person and that the information found in the database search is accurate and current.   Because sometimes the case has been pleaded down to lesser charges, or it had been deferred and now that the candidate fulfilled his obligations to the courts, the record was removed.  Or sometimes it is a case of the candidate following and the court permitting his record to be expunged.

So, for the double edged sword aspect, on one hand you want to be sure no one has a criminal record that as an employer you wouldn’t believe is fitting in your workplace.  On the other, you don’t want to reject a job candidate who actually does not have a criminal record, because the report proved inaccurate or the record had been expunged.

While we see these kind of cases, from time to time, one recent email caught my attention.  It is from a gentleman who had found his job searches disrupted because the criminal databases erroneous reported records on him.   It wasn’t the case as you will see.  Since this is the perfect example, I thought it prudent to post the letter.   The person’s name has been changed for obvious reasons.  Anyway, from Bob R.–

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Good Afternoon.  Some way for me to spend a Sunday!

Before anything else, I sincerely DO appreciate your help.  I really do.

I saw your website and thought you might be able to lead me in the right direction.

Quick Background- had criminal charges against me…no conviction…entered ARD program in 2006…completed in 2008…record totally expunged in 2008/2009- have all of the documents.

Having never been in trouble before (and never again), I then learned that there are databases and re-sellers of criminal information and unfortunately they are not always up-to-date.  If I should encounter a situation where a background check is done and something pops up, I know I am given the opportunity to fix it.  Unfortunately, by that time, it is often too late- especially with a job.

I have started to contact the databases that I have been told are out there, but it is impossible to discern on-line which are companies that are the database companies from other companies that simply use the database (re-sellers).  Naturally, I want to get ahead of the process and clear my name everywhere.

Do you have any suggestions (all are welcome) on how I can find out who the database companies are? I honestly don’t know if there are 15 of them or 500 of them.

As you can imagine, this entire episode in my life has been very traumatic.  Right when I think it is behind me, I learn there are other obstacles which can affect the rest of my life.”


Find below my response–

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“Bob,

Your problem is fairly common and one of the bugaboos of the databases.  Unfortunately, there are dozens of them with new ones coming on all the time.  In certain states the non-database statewide criminal searches are not necessarily as up to date or as accurate as they should be.

Whether contacting databases and asking that your name and record be deleted is a productive time expenditure can be easily debated.   And then when you no sooner believe you have addressed all the databases out there, you either discover you missed a few or new ones have popped up with the same damning records information.   It can be an enervating and sometimes thankless experience.   I would not discourage it, but I would not rely entirely on this action either.

Fortunately, since you have documents declaring your records have been expunged, you should be proactive when seeking a job and use them to your best advantage.  Ask the HR Manager if the background check includes a database criminal search.  If so, tell the HR manager up front that records may possibly be listed in the criminal database but they are inaccurate and you have the documents to prove so.   One such document I would highly recommend you obtain, if you do not have it already, is certification of the court records.   This certification is issued from the county where the charges were filed and recorded.   The county clerk in that court certifies via county seal that as of whatever date your request it, court records show there are no records, convictions, whatever, on file.   That is really the last word in background searches.

We at Corra Group will request county certification, occasionally.   We do it for either purpose, to indicate there or no records, or that records are clear in the parlance of our business.   And we also request certification to confirm that a party contesting records does in fact have criminal records on file.

Bob, that is my best advice, the same I provide to our clients.   I hope this is helpful.

If you don’t mind, Corra has a blog, the Corra Daily Planet.  I would like to post your question and my answer on the blog, if that is okay with you.  Needless to say, I would remove your name or put in a fictitious one in its place.

Good luck to you.”

I hope you all find this helpful



By Gordon Basichis

Gordon Basichis is the Co-Founder of Corra Group, specializing in pre-employment background checks and corporate research. He has been a marketing and media executive and has worked in the entertainment industry, the financial, health care and technology sectors. He is the author of the best selling Beautiful Bad Girl, The Vicki Morgan Story, a non-fiction novel that helped define exotic sexuality in the late twentieth century. He is the author of the Constant Travellers and has recently completed a new book, The Guys Who Spied for China, dealing with Chinese Espionage in the United States. He has been a journalist for several newspapers and is a screenwriter and producer.