In order to protect customers from home service providers and repairmen where should criminal background information be obtained and how extensive should it be?
That is a long but pointed question. In the United States almost anybody can become a criminal background company overnight. With a few dollars I can purchase a 38 (Thirty-Eight) State database and call myself a National Screening Company. This is really very scary. Then I could start marketing my National Screening Company, and depending on how good my marketing skill were, I could start bringing in business and making money with no experience, no education and no integrity. Here’s the key: If the screening company you are using is not obtaining actual disposition (conviction) records on employees from the federal, state and county courts, and doing it themselves with licensed private investigators, the information cannot be trusted.
All it takes is one lawsuit for negligent hiring, and the company who hired the service provider with a prior record will likely get hit for damages. Additionally, the screening company will likely get sued, if they did not meet the negligence standards for research in obtaining relevant, accurate, timely, real-time information directly from the courts. Simply keeping information in a data base, in an office, stored on a server somewhere, is simply not good enough to avoid liability. Things change within the courts on a day-to-day basis. Court clerks update information as events take place in the court. The company can have their own database of information they have compiled, but unless the company is looking at court records on a daily basis for every applicant that comes through their private investigators hands, it simply not good enough to avoid liability.
Therefore, ensure that criminal background investigation company you hire does it right the first time. Remember there are a million attorneys in the United States looking for a job. Don’t get sucked into the legal money pit for having hired the wrong criminal investigation screening company.
About The Author:
J. Denton (Denny) Dobbins is Nationally and Internationally recognized as the world’s leader in Premises Liability Protection and has been featured across North America sharing the stage with Political Leaders, Police Celebrities, Administrators and Business Leaders. Since 1978, Denny has been involved with the detection and deterrence of Criminal Activity in properties and employment of all types.
