When conducting any pre-employment inquiry, be sure and check civil and criminal files in the applicant’s county (s) of residence covering the last seven years. Information at this level is primary source based and best evidence. Oftentimes, these records must be hand searched; even if computerized, those files having relevance must be physically reviewed. Why?
- In Michigan, Wisconsin and many other states, it is the obligation of county court clerks to report criminal conviction data to state repositories such at the Michigan State Police Criminal History Record Section, the Wisconsin Department of Justice, Criminal Records Unit or like organizations in other states. Sadly, this process is not perfect, and some information does not get routed correctly. The only way to thoroughly check someone’s criminal record is to perform inquiries at both the state and the county levels.
- More potentially relevant detail (not available at the state level) is available in criminal and civil files at the county level.
- County civil records can provide a window for looking into someone’s character. Would you want to hire an individual who has had personal protection orders filed against them, who was sued for chronic non-payment of debt, who had a history of engaging in spurious litigation or has been found responsible for one or more events involving dysfunctional behavior? County records can provide a snapshot of an applicant’s character and personality.
There is other information maintained at the county level which could have relevance to applicant suitability. You will not know what that might be unless the investigator performing the inquiry knows what to look for and what to legally report back to you under the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) background inquiry guidelines. Frankly, no findings at the county level can be a good thing coupled with other pre-employment findings.
Many national pre-employment screening services claim to have the ability to check county records; however, if the files cannot be accessed online and the inquiry is incomplete, they will report “no record found.” The client is left thinking that the work was performed thoroughly when in fact no records were examined.
Include county record checks in your pre-employment screening, and if you employ a service such as ours, www.backgroundcheckswork.com, to provide this support, ensure you understand that their process is thorough and conducted onsite. Hiring the wrong employee or the wrong contractual pre-employment screening service can cost your organization dearly.
Backgroundcheckswork.com is a subsidiary of and is fully staffed by investigators from Research North, Inc., a professional private detective service providing support to the business community and the insurance industry since 1981. The company specializes in legally compliant inquiries for small and medium sized Michigan and Wisconsin businesses wanting to evaluate individuals seeking employment, promotion, reassignment or retention as employees.
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