Legislative and Judicial Update

New Changes to the Law

As we all know the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C., section 1681 et seq.) underwent major changes in November of 1996. A year later, when the changes became active, it altered the handling of all pro and post-employment investigations. Since Mid 1997 a great deal of work was done in an attempt to change the law so that it could be more compatible with the investigative needs of government agencies and private sector businesses. However, after all that work, Congress passed only limited amendments, which President Clinton signed into law on 11/2/98.

The amendments to note are:

• Government entities that supply information to other entities, as required by law, have been reclassified as non-Credit Reporting Agencies. This absolves DMV, courts, NCIC, and other repositories of records from requiring users to provide certification of their compliance with the Act before they could release records. ·
• Federal government agency investigations are removed from the Act only when they are conducting investigations involving the granting of security clearances.
• Criminal conviction information can be included in reports, even though it might be older than seven years. All other provisions of the law which require that no information can be included in any qualifying report fit is older than seven years (10 years for bankruptcies) have been left unaltered.

Given the fact that Congress is now embroiled in the impeachment proceedings, it seems reasonable to believe that no major amendments will be forthcoming this year. This means that your company should be taking steps to work closely with legal counsel in an effort to make certain that all your employment-screening processes are in compliance with this Act and that all post-employment investigations also conform.

Finally, being the new Chairman of the legislative Liaison Committee, I would like you to keep me informed of all the legislation that you are interested in following so that I can better meet the needs of the chapter membership. You can reach me at
510-352-8660 or
jamessc@protective-solutions.com  

By Jim Cawood, CPP