The regulations governing a California background check apply more restrictions to investigating agencies that general federal law. All companies and investigators carrying out employee screening in California must understand what records they can and cannot have access to, and what employee, or job applicants' rights are regarding access to these records.

There are many reasons for employee background checks to be carried out, and probably the most obvious is in order that the employers protect themselves against negligent hiring court actions. These cases have been increasing of late, and are due to employers hiring employees that then go on to cause injury to other employees, or the company corporate, when reasonable care and attention in checking out employee's past records could have prevented the injury occurring.

For example, if an employee with a record of violence is taken on, and then assaults another employee in the workplace, the employer can be guilty of negligent hiring if the criminal record could have been uncovered with a proper background check.

There are several federal regulations, such as the Fair Credit Reporting Act, that restrict what records an employer is allowed to access about a prospective employee. For example you cannot find out information about civil lawsuits or convictions after seven years, credit accounts placed for collection after seven years or bankruptcies after ten years. Additionally, if you employ a third party to carry out your background checks, you need the permission of the applicant to carry out a applicant screening report, and are obliged to inform them of the results of the investigation.

Of course, potential violence is not the only reason for background checks, and others are terrorism, where employees in certain industries need to make sure that the information and skills acquired in the course of the employment will not be used for the purposes of terrorism, and also people applying for work involving children, the disabled or the elderly have to be properly screened under Californian state law.

It is an unfortunate fact that over 30% of all CVs and resumes are falsified, and employers are rapidly becoming compelled to carry out effective screening before offering employment. The penalties for employing unsuitable qualified people without carrying out full employee background checks are too high for employers to make assumptions. Candidates for all high profile jobs within a company are now as fully screened as possible, within the constraints applied by federal and individual state law.

In California, these laws provide more protection for the applicant than federal law. Even in the initial application form, where employers may not even request details of age, sex or race, it is not allowed to ask questions about arrests, and questions on convictions are permissible only if they are job related.

If you are a federal or state employee, your employment record is protected, and your employer is not obliged to provide information to prospective employees, except under specific circumstances. The same applies to your medical records. You should be very careful, however, about refusing permission to your prospective employer. Tthey will think the worst and will be unlikely to employ you.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act, that requires an employer to inform the employee of a consumer report, request written permission for it and inform them if the check was the result of their application being refused, does not apply if the employer carries out the checks themselves rather than employ a third party.

In California, however, this loophole is closed, and employees have the right to notice, consent and to receive a copy of the credit report. Additionally, in California, a copy of the investigating agency report must be available in both Spanish and English.

All of this simply indicates that employers have to be aware of state law as well as federal law when carrying out a California background check and that it is probably best to use the services of an investigating agency that is familiar with California law with respect to employee screening.