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Background Checks

Hiring a new employee is a big decision that can cost your business a lot of money if it's not done correctly. To ensure you hire the best candidate, it is often a good idea to run a background check before making a final decision. A Background Check may be conducted to verify that a person is who they claim to be and also provides an opportunity to check a person’s criminal and civil records, education, and employment history in order to confirm their validity.
An Employment Background Check typically takes place when someone applies for a job, but can also happen at any time the employer deems necessary. Establishing whether an employee has a criminal record is a crucial step in assessing the risk of bringing that person into your organization. While not every crime automatically prevents an applicant from being hired, having that knowledge allows you to make an educated decision. You can use the results of a background check to evaluate the relevance of the record to the position’s level of responsibility, exposure to assets or customers, and other criteria.
ALERT: It is illegal in some locales for employers to ask about criminal backgrounds during the job application process. The Fair Criminal Records Screening Standards Ordinance (“Ban the Box”) helps ensure that employers initially make hiring and other employment decisions based on work qualifications, without considering a person’s criminal record. The law restricts when an employer can inquire about a person’s criminal history and how it can be used. Please check your local ordinance for “Ban the Box” rules.
Litigants or Witness Investigations:
Do you routinely investigate whether an adverse party, or witness, has a criminal background? If not, you may be overlooking a key item of discovery, because the introduction of a civil litigant’s conviction could have a highly prejudicial effect on that person’s credibility, since most juries do not look sympathetically toward a litigant who has a criminal background. Although conventionally one thinks of utilizing a criminal conviction against a civil litigant in a personal injury case, the use of such a conviction is equally useful to impeach a party or witness in a commercial case.
Federal Records:
If requested, we conduct searches to determine whether or not a party is involved in federal litigation in federal appellate, district, and bankruptcy courts.
Call 215-654-0600 if you would like more information about background checks.