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Background Check Information Center

Staying Legally Compliant

While this section is not to be construed as legal advice, nor intended to be comprehensive, here are a few of the legal aspects surrounding background checking. HireRight always advises its clients to consult with their employment counsel when establishing a background checking program.

FCRA Compliance

The Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is designed to protect individuals by promoting accuracy, fairness, and privacy of information in the files of every Consumer Reporting Agency (CRA). Most CRAs are credit bureaus that gather and provide information about individuals - such as if they pay their bills on time or have filed bankruptcy - to creditors, employers, and landlords. Companies that perform pre-employment screening services, such as HireRight, are also governed by the FCRA, as are the employers that use HireRight’s background screening services.

HireRight provides FCRA compliance information and online templates of all letters and forms necessary to comply with FCRA employment background screening requirements, including:

Download sample Adverse Action letters
Download Summary of Consumer Rights

Background Checking Policy

HireRight recommends that you seek legal advice to review your formal policies and procedures, but consistency is the word of the day. Creating a policy doesn’t have to mean lots of research, but it does mean that you should document who you are going to check, what you are going to check about them, and how you are going to use the results in making an employment decision.

Obtain Employee or Candidate Consent

Except in certain cases of investigating employee misconduct, the FCRA requires that you must have your applicant’s or employee’s advance written permission to perform a background check. This disclosure and consent form should be a form separate from any employment application.

Download sample Applicant Disclosure and Consent form