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In our last installment we discussed how to obtain motor vehicle records. Today I will discuss how to verify someones employment. Just so you know this is not a way to find out where someone is employed that is another can of worms completely. We will discuss how to determine if someone worked at a particular company and if they have a good work record.

First of all you will need a signed release to do these checks. If you are doing a background check on a prospective employees then the FCRA still applies as well as your state and local laws.

If the person you are doing the check on has filled out an application or has sent you a resume’ then you will have to look in the section that lists their previous employment. Most times they will list the address, phone number and their supervisor. You will want to call the company and try to get a hold of the supervisor. This way you can talk to the person that was directly responsible for that persons work.

A typical call may go something like this:

ABC Company: Hello ABC Company may I help you?
You: Yes may I speak to John Smith in the widget department?
ABC: One moment please.
ABC: Hi this is John Smith how may I help you?
You: Yes John, my name is Harry Mann, I have a gentleman by the name of (whatever the subjects name is) and he is applying for a job with us. He listed you as a contact for his previous employment. Is it ok if I ask you a couple of questions?
ABC: Sure go ahead!
You: (Subjects name) says that he was a widget wrangler with your company is that true?
ABC: Why yes it is!
You: He also states that you were his supervisor?
ABC: Yes, yes I was!
You: Was he a good worker for you then?
ABC: Yep, he was pretty good.
You: Pretty good? Were there any problems?
ABC: No not really.
You: Was he ever late?
ABC: Yes sometimes he was.
You: Well, I know how that goes. I had a guy that was always late and he smelled too.
ABC: Oh yeah, well let me tell you about (subject).

Now all calls may not go like that, but my point is once you start talking to these people be a little personable. It will get you far more information.
Some companies are huge and you will never get through to the supervisor or they may have a policy that they do not give out any information. Almost always though you can at least get dates of employment, salary and if they eligible for re-hire.

If you are willing to spend a little money you can use a service called The Work Number. They have an automated system that can verify someones previous employment. It’s a pretty nifty little tool. If you have any questions that I left unanswered feel free to leave them in the comments section. I will try and answer as many as I can.

In our next article I will cover the basics of verifying someones education. Hope to see you then!

In our last installment we discussed how to obtain criminal records and how to conduct a thorough search in the areas the subject lives.

Now we are going to discuss how to obtain driving records on your subject. For the most part these records cost money but they cost less than if you had to purchase them from a background check company or some other source.

First of all you can’t just go around obtaining driving records for no reason. Most states consider them “private” records as opposed to public records like criminal or civil records are. The federal government also has a governing document called the DPPA or the Drivers Privacy Protection Act that sets forth rules on how when and for what purposes you can obtain driving and motor vehicle record information. If you are conducting this background check for employment purposes then the FCRA applies as well. In addition many states have laws and rules that govern these types of searches as well.

For the most part you can obtain motor vehicle records if:

1) It is a requirement of employment. For example if the person is going to be a delivery driver or will be transporting materials for your company.

2) An attorney that requires the record to defend his client.

3) Insurance companies that need to determine the risk factor in insuring a client.

5) Obtaining your own record to make sure of its accuracy or defending yourself in a court case.

There are certainly other reason for obtaining motor vehicle or driving records many of them dealing with a need to determine a persons identity for legal purposes. You can read more about them in the DPPA. Of course different states may have different laws so you will have to determine those laws individually.

To obtain our record I am going to give an example on how to obtain one from Washington State.
The first thing you need to do is to determine where to write and what documents you will need.
I found the website for Washington State Department of Motor Vehicles by Going to Google and typing exactly that.

Washington State has a nice search function on their site and I then typed in “Driving Records”.
The first result was the one I needed. Each state’s website may be different so you may have to navigate around a little to determine what you need.

Washington State has a good setup that explains how, when and why you can obtain these records.

From The Site: How to get another person’s driving record
The process depends on the type of record you want. The steps for requesting a copy of a driving record are listed with each type of record below. For more information about driving records, please see Frequently asked questions

You will need to download the request form and fill it out and send in the appropriate fees.

In most cases in most states you will need to have a signed release from the subject that you are conducting the check on. As stated previously you will need a permissible purpose to conduct the check.

Now granted because of the fees these checks aren’t exactly free but it could save you some money.

Thanks for putting up with my rambling and stay tuned for our next installment on how to verify someones previous employment.

Ok, many people on the Internet search for "free background checks". Most places that offer free background checks make you pay at some point. I am going to explain how you can do a check for free (for the most part) on yourself or someone else.

Let’s clear the air here, if you are going to be running a background check then please follow all state and federal laws pertaining to them. For example if you are conducting the check for employment purposes then please follow the guidelines of the FCRA. Do not take this lightly as you can get into a whole heap of trouble.

Let’s start with the criminal record check. The best way to do this, as I have said before, is to go through the county courts where the person has lived. If you have the persons last address then check that county and the surrounding counties in that area I will give an example. Let’s say I want to conduct a criminal record check on my daughters new boyfriend and I know that he is from Cleveland, Ohio. I went to http://www.ask.com/ and typed in Ohio County Maps. I happen to know that Cleveland, Ohio is located in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Ask.com gave me a good county map of Ohio and from there I can determine the closest counties around Cuyahoga. Check out a copy of the map here http://www.dot.state.oh.us/map1/cntymap.asp .

The reason I want the closest counties to Cuyahoga is because I am going to be checking them for criminal records on our subject as well. Why, you ask? Well because most people that commit crimes tend to do so within their comfort zone, meaning within a certain distance of their house.

So from our example we can see that Lake, Geauga, Summit, Medina and Lorain Counties all surround our target county.

Next we need to figure out what court house we are either going to call or check online. Most courthouses are online these days and you can find a good list of them here http://www.crimcheck.com/freerecords.htm .

Ok, I now have My subjects name, the county he lives in and the surrounding counties of the county he lives in and a list to find the court houses in those counties. Now we need to find out if he has a criminal record. In this instance I used the name Michael Smith. Click the image at the top of this post for the example. As you can see the results all have addresses by them, that is one way to determine that you have the right subject.

Now you can go to all of the other counties on your list and do the same thing. Warning: As you can see from our example there is more than one Michael Smith. Make sure that you have the right subject before you start making accusations or using the results as evidence.

You can even go one step further and check for misdemeanors within the city courts of the counties that your are checking. I would normally just check the city where the subject lives and the county seats of the surrounding counties. If you have comments or questions please feel free to post them here.

I will be covering motor vehicle records and driving records in my next article so stay tuned!

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Hey if you want to talk about background checks then please feel free to head on over to BackgroundChatter. It is a young community but it is very active so far. If you have any questions about the FCRA or any other legislation it’s the place to be. Read more…

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These are the top 10 information sources on the web that I have found to be invaluable when conducting investigations. They range from free public records to search engines. Read more…

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