We’ve briefly mentioned this before, but it certainly bears repeating as everyone here at A-Check Global remains focused on providing accurate, compliant service, all with the shortest turnaround times possible. As you may know, we closely follow and participate in efforts to address California Rules of Court, rule 2.507—legislation which resulted in removal of date of birth and other personal information from publicly accessible criminal record cases.

Consumer Reporting Agencies like A-Check rely on personal information within court public indexes as an accuracy indicator during criminal background screening. It is reported that greater than 30% of California’s 58 counties now redact full or partial DOBs from criminal case records.

While we will never accept service disruptions as the “new normal,” for now, service impact is often an unfortunate combination of issues. For example, A-Check has seen problematic delays in many counties because they’ve not only removed DOBs from publicly accessible case information, but now also have limited processes in place to help court researchers in person. This causes name matches to get heavily delayed. In fact, we’ve also seen many researchers are being limited to a maximum number of daily case requests—likely an effort to give courts the best opportunity possible to keep up with demand.

There is certainly no magic solution to this redaction rule, and delays may continue within these counties for the foreseeable future. That said, please know that A-Check and our researchers, along with other CRAs, data providers, and industry organizations like the Professional Background Screening Association (PBSA) continue to actively lobby in favor of productive revisions to the rule for specific, permissible purpose (like background screening).

While this is only a snapshot of service impact as of this writing, A-Check is seeing process delays in the following California counties: Butte, Calaveras, Contra Costa, Glenn, Lake, Lassen, Los Angeles, Madera, Marin, Merced, Napa, Placer, Riverside, San Benito, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Shasta, Solano, Ventura, and Yuba.

In spite of challenges we face throughout numerous counties within California, we will continue to serve our valued clients to the best of our ability.

We’re here to help answer any questions you may have.