How far can a company go back on background check in Florida?

Answer 1

This can depend heavily on the type of background checking service that the company is using and what kind of checks that particular service provides (or based on the type of check that the company itself can afford to begin with).

The industry standard is 7 years at a minimum, though many run at least a 10 year background because of DOT regulations and other regulatory bodies that may require a minimum of 10 years. However, most checks can go back as far as when you first turned 18, so there really is not a limit as to how far back they can go, but again, most standards fall within the 7-10 year range.

It can also depend on where they are running the check as well. There are basically two main checks - the municipal (state) and the Federal. The reason I say municipal instead of state, is because most crimes are taken care of in the municipal court, and may or may not be filed with the state for search purposes. So depending on the nature of the crime, these are two separate databases, so the company would need to check both to get a true "full" check.

Since you are dealing on a municipal level, most background checks base the search criteria on places of residence, usually based on what is found from a search on your SSN and DoB. However, you could potentially live in one county, but commit a crime and be convicted in another county. So if that employer is only running a cheap check where it only checks the counties you have lived in, they may miss it (that is why I say it depends on the type of check that the company has purchased in the first place).

The only other option is if you have had a record expunged, but sometimes, depending on the state, even expunged records will appear on the check, it will just be labeled as expunged.

Another thing to consider is the difference between arrests and actual convictions. If you were arrested for something, but not convicted, an employer really should not have any way of denying employment, since most of the time it is based on an actual conviction not an arrest.

Overall, your best bet is not to commit a crime to begin with, so then you do not have to worry about it!