The best possible source for verification of general information about any person is his or her civil records.

Civil records are credible. With increased pressure on checking antecedents or getting the background checks conducted before employing or even engaging a professional, civil record morgues are now put to use more frequently than ever before.

What information can civil records provide? Read more…

Conducting pre-employment background checks, including criminal background checks, employment verifications, immigration status checks and sex offender registry searches, are an essential step in the hiring process. Although the information gathered in a pre-employment background check is of great use to an employer, this same information is often times highly sensitive, especially to the perspective employee. Read more…

Hi Folks!
I initially started writing the article below to make into an e-book. Well as things progressed and I started getting more and more in-depth, I thought it might be a good article for my blog. As you may or may not know I work for an employment screening company and they have given me their blessing to go ahead and publish articles that discuss how to conduct free background checks. Read more…

A criminal record does not necessary disqualify a job applicant from a position. Federal and state laws have strict guidelines concerning disqualifying an applicant for a position, and disqualification requires careful consideration on the part of the hiring manager.<!–more–>

Ensuring compliancy with federal and state regulations begins by creating a fully developed position description that clearly identifies skills, education, certifications, and security requirements mandatory to the position. You will also need to understand your federal and state requirements for particular positions. Most states prohibit people convicted of certain specific crimes from holding occupations such as home health worker, daycare worker, or teacher.

In addition, all job applicants should be required to complete a standard application in addition to submitting a resume. A standardized job application not only ensures that you can collect the information for a background and criminal record check, it also allows the applicant to properly disclose and explain a past conviction.

When addressing a criminal record, federal and state laws require that you show reasonable analysis of the following:

• Did the candidate properly disclose their criminal record? Did your background check correspond with the information provided?
• How does the type and severity of the conviction relate to the position? Do the security requirements of the position leave your company, employees, clients, or public vulnerable as it relates the candidate’s criminal record?
• What were the facts surrounding the conviction?
• How long ago was the conviction? Has the applicant made reasonable efforts at rehabilitation?
• Was the applicant employed before and after the conviction? Is the employment history consistent with the position description and requirements?

If after this careful analysis, you find that the applicant does not qualify for the position you must document why you did not choose the applicant. Requirements for notifying an applicant about your reasons for denying them based on a criminal record vary by state.

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.

So ya wanna be a net detective/netsleuth/cybercop, etc? First of all the claims these types of software packages make are false! Out and out lies. I had written an article about background checks several years ago and included some of the flaws with their advertising. I will go over some of the bigger lies here. Read more…