Pre-Employment Credit Checks Under Heightened Scrutiny
Complying with the Fair Credit Reporting Act, Title VII and State Laws
EEOC examines credit checks as potential barrier to employment
Recording of a 90-minute CLE webinar with Q&A
This CLE course will provide guidance for employment counsel on ways to minimize liability exposure when employers obtain and use credit information to make hiring decisions.
Outline
- Legal risks of background checks
- Fair Credit Reporting Act violations
- Title VII discrimination claims
- State law violations
- Recent legal developments
- Recent EEOC meeting and current enforcement focus
- Private litigation
- Best practices for employers to minimize litigation risks
- Weigh benefits of obtaining data versus potential legal liabilities
- Develop written policies on what information can be collected and used
- Tailor background checks to fit specific criteria for job position
- Enforce policies consistently and uniformly
- Train managers, supervisors and employees on company policy
- Routinely self-audit applicant pools for disparate impact
- Considerations when using recruiters in hiring – joint employer liability
- Complying with the Fair Credit Reporting Act and state law
Benefits
The panel will review these and other key questions:
- How are the EEOC, U.S. Congress and the states addressing the growing use of credit checks as an employment pre-screening measure?
- How can businesses balance their duty to conduct due diligence background checks on applicants against their obligation to comply with federal and state laws when making employment decisions?
- What are the best practices for employers when developing and implementing policies for using credit histories when screening applicants?
Faculty
Cindy D. Hanson
Partner
Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton
Ms. Hanson focuses her practice on complex commercial litigation and class action defense. She has handled hundreds of... | Read More
Ms. Hanson focuses her practice on complex commercial litigation and class action defense. She has handled hundreds of matters under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Her practice includes the representation of both consumer reporting agencies and entities who furnish information to consumer reporting agencies.
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Pamela Q. Devata
Partner
Seyfarth Shaw
Ms. Devata specializes in all aspects of employment defense including counseling, training, and litigation. She... | Read More
Ms. Devata specializes in all aspects of employment defense including counseling, training, and litigation. She also has a special emphasis on the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and state laws effecting background screening. She counsels both employers and providers (resellers and consumer reporting agencies) of background information on compliance requirements under the FCRA and related state laws.
CloseSarah Crawford
Senior Counsel, Employment Discrimination Project
Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
She litigates cases involving discrimination in the workplace. She handles employment matters through all phases of... | Read More
She litigates cases involving discrimination in the workplace. She handles employment matters through all phases of processing from the administrative filing, at trial, and through appeal. Prior to joining the Lawyers' Committee, she worked as an attorney with the U.S. Department of Labor, where she represented the interests of employees of federal contractors in class action employment litigation.
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