Retail Detail: Retail Employers In Massachusetts Must Now Navigate A New Criminal Record Law

On May 4, 2012, major changes are coming that will require all Massachusetts Retail employers conducting criminal background checks to reassess their practices. As we reported previously, the Massachusetts Legislature overhauled the Criminal Offender Record Information ("CORI") statute in 2010, imposing a host of new requirements for users and providers of criminal history to be phased in over time. The Department of Criminal Justice Information Services ("DCJIS") recently issued 84 pages of Proposed Regulations (see our alert here) implementing the last of the new requirements and announced a public hearing on the draft regulations scheduled for March 30, 2012. On April 11, we will host a webinar where our experts will provide an overview of the requirements which go into effect on May 4, 2012, an analysis of the proposed regulations, and an update on the DCJIS's public hearing.

Topics to be discussed at the April 11 webinar, include:

• New requirements related to obtaining, storing, and destroying criminal history information.
   
• The procedures that an employer must follow prior to discussing an applicant's criminal history with the applicant or taking adverse action based on the applicant's criminal history.
   
• The information an employer must provide to an applicant before taking adverse action based on the applicant's criminal history.
   
• The relationship between the Massachusetts CORI law and the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
   
• The obligation for employers regularly conducting any kind of criminal background checks to maintain a "CORI" policy.
   
• New obligations for employers who utilize Consumer Reporting Agencies (CRAs) to obtain criminal history information or make decisions regarding applicants.
   
• Penalties for violating the CORI law.

By: Barry Miller and Jean Wilson

Barry Miller is a partner and Jean Wilson is counsel in Seyfarth's Boston office. If you would like further information, please contact your Seyfarth attorney, Barry Miller at bmiller@seyfarth.com or Jean Wilson at jwilson@seyfarth.com.