Associated Press Finds Stunning Inaccuracies on Background Checks

December 22, 2011

By Dallas and Collin County Criminal Defense Lawyer Jeremy Rosenthal

(972) 562-7549

texasdefensefirm.com

Did you know 90% of employers do background checks since 9/11?  Criminal background searches are now a $2 billion per year industry and due to increased digitalization of court records — mom and pop background check companies are beginning to spring up.  They don’t seem to have the resources or desire to get things right.

And here’s the scary part — most of the leading background check companies wouldn’t even return the AP’s phone calls to discuss how many of their files were inaccurate.  They currently use automated systems which scrub online databases run by governmental entities with flawed formulas that misinterpret information the human eye might spot.  They commonly botch common names and stick the wrong people with criminal charges.  Many are also very poor at updating their information when criminal cases are expunged or non-disclosed.

You can read the article in it’s entirety here.  There are few articles out there that are must-reads.  This is one of them.

From a criminal defense lawyer perspective — fighting to keep someone’s record clean is pointless if some company who doesn’t care about what they report calls you a criminal anyway and costs you a job.

Another main point to take from the AP article is no one will care about making sure your criminal history is clean as much as you will.  Making sure you have a clean history is every bit as important as checking your credit score.

*Jeremy Rosenthal is Board Certified in Criminal Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and licensed by the Supreme Court of Texas. Nothing in this article is intended to be legal advice.  For legal advice about any specific situation, you should contact an attorney directly.  Contacting the attorney through this forum does not create an attorney-client relationship.  Communications sent through this blog are not confidential.

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Posted by Jeremy Rosenthal, Esq.

Who Can See My Criminal Record?

June 1, 2011

By Collin and Dallas County Criminal Defense Lawyer Jeremy Rosenthal

(972) 562-7549

texasdefensefirm.com

Criminal records are generated different ways.  What you have to remember is that when you get arrested, you are cycling through a public system where information is (to varying degrees) open to the public.

Your “official” criminal records are kept by the FBI and the Texas Department of Public Safety.  The FBI runs the NCIC (National Crime Information Center) and DPS runs the TCIC (Texas Crime Information Center).  Only specifically authorized personnel are allowed to view information in these databases and it is not readily accessible to the public.  In fact, the illegal dissemination of information of the NCIC or TCIC is a class b misdemeanor in Texas.

When a private citizen or company is looking at your criminal record, what they are really looking at is information a third-party vendor has purchased or acquired directly from county, state or city court system.  Under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999, users must justify their queries and have a legitimate purpose for conducting background research on websites of the public data forums.  As you might guess, the categories are somewhat broad — so if you’re applying for a job or for credit then it’s safe to assume your background may be legally checked.

Non-disclosures and expunctions are ways in Texas that criminal records can be mitigated.  An expunction under Tex.Code.Crim.P. Chapter 55 is an extremely powerful right which authorizes the actual destruction of the information surrounding the arrest.  

A non-disclosure under the government code chapter 481 can help in limiting the persons who can have access to an arrest record.  Generally, only governmental agencies will have access to criminal records.

*Jeremy Rosenthal is Board Certified in Criminal Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and licensed by the Supreme Court of Texas. Nothing in this article is intended to be legal advice.  For legal advice about any particular issue, you should consult an attorney directly.

 

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Posted by Jeremy Rosenthal, Esq.

Deferred Adjudication

March 14, 2010

By Collin County Criminal Attorney Jeremy Rosenthal

texasdefensefirm.com

(972) 369-0577

Deferred adjudication in Texas is where a person charged with an offense pleads guilty or no contest and rather than being found guilty, the judge defers a finding of guilty while the accused is placed on what amounts to probation.

If the person successfully completes deferred, they are never “convicted” of the offense.  Most people are familiar with deferred because of a traffic offense or another class c misdemeanor.  Most class c deferred adjudications do make you eligible for expunction.  You are not eligible for expunction for class b misdemeanors or above in Texas, meaning your criminal record will never be completely erased.  You may be eligible for a petition for non-disclosure which is much different.

It is a dangerous, dangerous, assumption for anyone to make that if they plead guilty and accept deferred that the case merely vanishes or goes away.  Here is an interesting web site about deferred adjudication.  I’m not personally familiar with this group, but they seem to have some interesting information and statistics about deferred.

I’m not always convinced deferred is a terrible thing, but sometimes deferred can even be the devil’s candy… meaning that it sounds very tempting but it only begins your nightmare.

If you violate deferred, then you’re subject to punishment for the entire punishment range.  What this means, is that even though you get deferred on a state jail felony (that has a maximum punishment of 2 years jail — as an example), you may at first just have to report to a probation officer and do probation — but if you violate your probation — you can’t go back and fight the underlying case AND you are still subject to doing up to the entire 2 years in jail.

The federal government may treat a Texas deferred as a conviction.  Also, there are many Texas statutes and laws which simply don’t give you any benefit above and beyond a conviction.  Just as a small example, where a juvenile gets multiple dui deferred adjudications, they can later be enhanced as if they were convictions.  There are plenty of other criminal statutes  in Texas that treat deferred like a conviction.

If you’re about to accept deferred adjudication in a Texas Court, you should make sure to specifically know exactly what it is that you’re getting into by speaking with your

*Jeremy Rosenthal is Board Certified in Criminal Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and licensed by the Supreme Court of Texas. Nothing in this article is intended to be legal advice.  For specific legal advice, you should always consult an attorney.

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Posted by Jeremy Rosenthal, Esq.