The Risks in Background Checks
The Clean Slate Act’s Impact on Employers
AGG Talks: Background Screening - Ban the Box and Fair Chance Hiring Laws: The Year in Review
Expungements: A Helping Hand for a Second Chance and New Opportunities
AGG Talks: Background Screening - Redaction of Identifiers by the Courts Update, Breaking News from California
AGG Talks: Background Screening - Redaction of Identifiers by the Courts in Michigan and California Pose Challenges for Background Checks
#WorkforceWednesday: COVID-19 Restrictions Tighten, NYC Fair Chance Act, Biden's Budget - Employment Law This Week®
How to Conduct Criminal Background Checks the Right Way
[WEBINAR] Labor & Employment Law: What Changed in 2017
"Ban The Box" And Other Laws Limiting An Employer's Use Of Criminal History
LXBN This Week Ep. 2: EEOC on Criminal Records & Transgender Discrimination, BP Oil Spill Arrest, AZ Immigration Law at SCOTUS
Smart hiring often includes a post-offer criminal background check on the job candidate to help employers make informed decisions. This practice can reveal potential employment risks like theft, workplace violence, or...more
A large convenience store chain recently learned about the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s intention to challenge how employers use arrest and conviction records to make hiring decisions....more
Are you considering hiring a new employee? For workplace safety, having all the necessary information about someone before making important decisions is essential. That’s where criminal background checks come into play. By...more
Employers commonly conduct background checks on prospective employees in various areas that they may think relevant when deciding whether to hire an individual for a job. Yet, federal, state, and local laws are increasingly...more
An overwhelming majority of states have adopted what is widely known as “ban-the-box” laws or policies that generally prohibit employers from inquiring about an applicant’s criminal background until later in the hiring...more
Louisiana has joined the growing number of states that have enacted “fair chance” laws that, in general, require employers to evaluate the relationship between a candidate’s criminal history and the duties and...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Stepping into a new year always gives one a chance to reflect on the lessons and trends of the prior year. In that spirit, we are pleased to present our annual selections for the five most intriguing...more
One of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s top priorities has been to stop employers from instituting blanket bans on hiring individuals with criminal records. The EEOC’s focus stems from national data suggesting...more
A growing chorus of cities, counties, and states have passed “ban-the-box” laws that restrict when and how employers can consider an applicant’s or employee’s criminal history. Currently, thirteen states (California,...more
Employers should continue to exercise caution and care in drafting their criminal record screening policies. A recent settlement by Dollar General underscores this point, even though it comes on the heels of the Fifth...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit sided with Texas in its challenge to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) guidance for employers on the use of criminal records in hiring. ...more
In the first-of-its-kind ruling last week, the Fifth Circuit held that the EEOC’s investigators and lawyers cannot rely on its “Enforcement Guidance on Consideration of Arrest and Conviction Records in Employment Decisions...more
On Tuesday, August 6, 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit held that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (“EEOC”) Enforcement Guidance on the Consideration of Arrest and Conviction Records in...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: In the latest battle of the multi-year showdown between the State of Texas and the EEOC – whereby Texas asserted that the EEOC’s 2012 “Enforcement Guidance on the Consideration of Arrest and Conviction...more
On August 6, 2019, in State of Texas v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) overstepped its limited rulemaking...more
No legal authority to issue its Enforcement Guidance! In February 2018, I wrote about a federal court decision that enjoined (prohibited) the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from taking any action to enforce its 2012...more
A federal appeals court ruled yesterday that the 2012 guidance document from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) that cautioned employers not to apply blanket bans against hiring those with criminal records...more
On August 6, 2019, in Texas v. EEOC, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit dealt the EEOC a significant setback, largely affirming the district court’s decision that the EEOC violated the federal Administrative...more
Employers that use criminal record-screening policies must continue to be vigilant about compliance with all applicable laws and should know that the EEOC’s scrutiny of such policies, while perhaps scaled back, has not ended....more
Tampa, Fla. -- The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and Rooms To Go, a larger furniture retailer, have reached a voluntary conciliation agreement to resolve allegations of race discrimination raised by an...more
It is estimated that the "American criminal justice system holds almost 2.3 million people in 1,719 state prisons, 102 federal prisons, 1,852 juvenile correctional facilities, 3,163 local jails, and 80 Indian Country jails as...more
The state of California has long led the nation in regulating the employment relationship. From continuously expanding the classes of employees protected under its anti-discrimination laws, to passing one of the nation’s most...more
Employers that have been frustrated with the EEOC’s position on how they can use arrest and conviction records, take note: earlier this month, a federal court in Texas enjoined the EEOC and the Attorney General of the United...more
On February 1, 2018, a federal judge enjoined the EEOC and U.S. Attorney General from enforcing against the State of Texas the EEOC’s 2012 Enforcement Guidance on the Consideration of Arrest and Conviction Records in...more
In April 2012, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) issued updated “Enforcement Guidance on the Consideration of Arrest and Conviction Records in Employment Decisions Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of...more