background screening tips and tech

Court Access Fees on the RISE... Why?

Court access fees are on the rise.  What does that mean to the screening industry and the clients that we serve?

In years past we would see updates to court access fees maybe every quarter or every six months. In the last year we are seeing updated court access fees every month and the additional fees to access court records are starting to stack up.

By my calculations court access fees billed to clients at my background screening company went up by more than 15% in 2024. This is a pretty big increase.

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST TO HEAR MORE...

Connect with Tim Santoni
https://www.TimSantoni.com

Contact Santoni Backgrounds
https://www.santonibackgrounds.com

Los Angeles County - Dates of Birth Removed?

The Los Angeles County Superior court has announced that partial dates of birth will be removed from the public kiosks and from the court website.

What does this mean?  How does it impact you? 

The Los Angeles County Superior Court announced on February 20th that as of the close of business on Friday, February 23rd that partial dates of birth will no longer be available via KIOSKS or ONLINE.

If you read this release carefully you will notice that the partial dates of birth will be removed from the court website and the publicly available KIOSKS. It doesn’t say that they dates of birth wont’ be available with clerk assisted searches.

So, what does this mean? What is the true impact to background screeners, employers, and landlords?

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PBSA is celebrating 20 years. They are are a force in supporting and enhancing the background screening industry worldwide.


PBSA 2023 (Texas)

LOCATION:
Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center (Grapevine, Texas)

WHEN:
Sunday, September 10th through Tuesday September 12th 

On this episode of Background Screening Tips and Tech, Tim Santoni provides some insights into the show.

It's not too late to register for PBSA 2023. Here is a link.
https://thepbsa.org/events/2023-annual-conference/

See you in Dallas!

Tech Stack

The 7 Apps/Tech/Software you need to run a better a business.

1.     Office 365 or Google Apps (email)

2.     Accounting Software w/Payment Processing (QuickBooks or XERO

3.     DocuSign or Panda Doc

4.     Cloud Storage:  DropBox, OneDrive, Google Drive

5.     CRM – Salesforce, Zoho, ?

6.     Email Marketing (MailChimp, ConvertKit, Constant Contact)

7.     Team Messaging Platform (Teams, Slack)

Background Screening Packages... so many options

At a bare minimum the social security number trace and national criminal database search are the typical starting point for most screening packages.  The national criminal database has obvious flaws, but this search also covers high level government watch lists and sex offender registries, so it is something that employers are comfortable with as a foundation for their background report.

So, once you have the SSN trace and national criminal covered the next question becomes the county criminal searches.  There are a few flavors of this search

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE TO LEARN MORE.

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CRA Help Desk

The CRA Help Desk is a great tool offered by BRB Publications.  The CRA Help Desk offers state & FCRA compliance and reporting guidelines when it comes to reporting of criminal records.

If you are a researchers handling compliance and adjudication this tool is a must have.

The HR Help Desk is an 'add-on' option for Background Screeners that want to offer similar resources to their clients. Things like the 7-year states, Ban The Box guidance, EEOC Guidelines and much more.

The full version that includes the CRA Help Desk and the HR Help Desk runs about $200.00 per year.


BRBPublications.com

BRB also offers MVR Decoder & PRRN (Public Record Retriever Network)

PBSA 2022 'The Preview Show"

PBSA Annual Conference (LINK)

On this PODCAST Tim Santoni highlights the tracks for the PBSA Annual Conference in 2022.

• Legal Compliance
• Business
• International
• Drug Testing
• Tenant Screening

Tim also points out the sessions and speakers that he will be focused on at the show.

• IQubed Advisors (Jason Morris, Kevin Bachman & Nick Fishman)
• Pam Devata, Seyfarth Shaw LLP
• Scott Paler, Dewitt
• Leah Braukman, Arnall Golden Gregory, LLP
• Bruce Berg, Berg Consulting Group

The conference will be he held at the Gaylord Rockies Resort in Denver, Colorado from September 13th -15th.