Tag Archives: Background Checks

New NYC Law Requires Two-Step Background Checks and Expands List of Pre-Adverse Action Factors

By Priya Amin and Todd Lebowitz on July 26, 2021 Posted in Background Checks

The New York City Fair Chance Act (FCA) amendments expand protections for individuals with a criminal record and impose new obligations on employers that conduct background checks. The changes take effect July 29, 2021. The amendments require most background checks to be conducted in two steps,[1] provide “complete protection” for non-convictions and add specific FCA … Continue Reading

Los Angeles Joins Ban the Box Movement

By Todd Lebowitz and Jeffrey Bils on December 27, 2016 Posted in Background Checks, California

Los Angeles has become the latest city to ban private employers from asking job applicants about their criminal histories before offering a job. With its Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring, the city joins San Francisco, New York, Chicago, and about two dozen other cities, counties and states in enacting Ban the Box measures to promote … Continue Reading

“Lies, D*mned Lies, and Statistics”: Fourth Circuit Affirms Summary Judgment Against EEOC on Background Check Lawsuit Based Upon Faulty Statistical Analysis

By Pat Muldowney on February 25, 2015 Posted in Background Checks

On February 20, 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed a Maryland federal district court’s entry of summary judgment against the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) with respect to its lawsuit alleging that an employer’s background check program violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. EEOC v. … Continue Reading

Washington, D.C. Joins the Ban-the-Box Movement for Private Employers

By Todd Lebowitz on August 28, 2014 Posted in Background Checks

The District of Columbia has passed one of the most stringent ban-the-box laws in the nation. The D.C. law includes the typical prohibition on asking questions about criminal background during the application process, but it also adds a requirement, similar to New York State, that specific factors be considered before a conditional offer of employment … Continue Reading

Background Check Lawsuits: If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Another

By Pat Muldowney on July 15, 2014 Posted in Background Checks, Retail

As we previously have written, employer use of criminal records and background checks with respect to applicants and employees has been the subject of challenge on the grounds that such checks tend to discriminate against African-American, Hispanic, and male applicants. Indeed, on July 1, a federal court in New York certified a class of unsuccessful … Continue Reading