GoodHire Reporting Policies

What We Report on GoodHire Background Checks

Criminal Records:

GoodHire only reports pending cases and convictions in accordance with the 2012 EEOC Guidance on the Use of Criminal Records in Hiring. This means that GoodHire does not report arrests not leading to convictions.

GoodHire treats the following as non-convictions:

• Dismissed cases
• Not guilty verdicts
• Successfully completed deferral and diversion cases, including withhold of adjudication and probation before judgment.

While federal law allows for the indefinite reporting of criminal convictions, depending on your jurisdiction and/or the location of your candidate, criminal record reporting may be limited by state or local laws. Certain states limit reporting of criminal records to convictions that occurred within the last 7 years. These states include:

• California
• Kansas
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• Montana
• New Hampshire
• New Mexico
• New York
• Washington State

Additionally, Hawaii limits felony convictions to 7 years and misdemeanor convictions to 5 years.

If no jurisdiction-specific reporting limitations apply, GoodHire will report any available criminal convictions associated with a candidate, regardless of the age of the record. Please note, however, that non-violent and non-sexual misdemeanors may not be reported on the National Criminal Database Search if they are older than 7 years. To ensure you receive misdemeanors older than 7 years, we recommend ordering county checks.

GoodHire only reports records that we consider to be complete. This means that records must contain the name of the offense, the disposition, and the disposition date (or next court date, for a pending case).

GoodHire does not report expunged records.

Traffic-related misdemeanors and infractions will only be reported on Motor Vehicle Records checks, with the exception of DUIs or other substance-related driving offenses.

All Other Records:

The federal Fair Credit Report Act prohibits GoodHire from reporting any adverse information about candidates (except for criminal convictions, which may be reported indefinitely, and bankruptcies, which may be reported for ten years) that is older than 7 years.

If you order checks that search for non-criminal records such as civil suits, we will exclude adverse information on these reports that is older than 7 years, unless you order a ten year civil search and certify that the salary of the employee is reasonably expected to be at least $75,000. Bankruptcies will always be reported unless they are older than ten years.