1) All Tenant/Buyer Screening Packages include the US Nationwide Criminal History Check (including Sex Offender History); a search of the US Department of Justice Nationwide Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW); the National & International Prohibited Party/Terrorist Lists Inclusion Check; and the US Nationwide Incarceration Record Check. From there decide if you also want a Credit Score Report; a US Nationwide Bankruptcies, Tax Liens, Judgments, and Evictions Report; and/or a US Federal Nationwide Criminal Record Check; or any combination thereof; and select the appropriate package.

2) All Employment/Volunteer Screening Packages include the US Nationwide Criminal History Check (including Sex Offender History); a search of the US Department of Justice Nationwide Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW); the National & International Prohibited Party/Terrorist Lists Inclusion Check; US Nationwide Incarceration Record Check; US Federal Nationwide Criminal Record Check; Social Security Verification – Name Association; and all but the Silver Package also contain a US Countywide Criminal Record Check. From there decide if you also want a Driver's Record History Report; Education Verification; and Employment Verification; or any combination thereof; and select the appropriate package.

3) If you are performing either a Canadian Tenant/Buyer Screening, Canadian Criminal/Sex Offender History, or International Criminal History screening, all three packages include the US Nationwide Criminal History Check (including Sex Offender History); a search of the US Department of Justice Nationwide Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW); the National & International Prohibited Party/Terrorist Lists Inclusion Check; US Nationwide Incarceration Record Check; and US Federal Nationwide Criminal Record Check.

No. You only pay the flat rate shown for each search you do. And there are no contracts to sign. You can get substantial savings on your cost per search for the Instant Criminal Record Check & Instant Incarceration Record Check via Volume Discounts . Buy 100 Instant Record Checks ($15 per, $3 off the regular price) or 250 Instant Record Checks ($12 per, $6 off the regular price) for which you get 100 or 250 credits, respectively, to order either Instant Record Check whenever you wish until your credits are exhausted.

Yes. You can order online 24/7.

Most results are sent to your email same day, within 1-3 business hours. Instant Record Check results appear instantly onscreen and are sent instantly to your email. Education, employment verifications, and onsite countywide and statewide criminal record checks as well as Canadian credit, criminal, and other International criminal record checks might take 1-2 business days or longer and are emailed. All reports are stored in your ESS account for 30 days.

Credit or Debit Card – American Express, Visa, MasterCard, Discover – if you represent a company, you may be invoiced. You may prepay by check, credit or debit card as well for Instant Criminal Record Checks & Instant Incarceration Record Checks and get substantial savings via Volume Discounts . Purchase 100 Instant Record Checks at $15 each ($5 off the regular price), or 250 Instant Record Checks at $12 each ($6 off the regular price), and receive 100 or 250 credits, respectively, to order either Instant Record Check whenever you wish until your credits are exhausted.

Yes. Your confidential transactions are secured by the best and most up-to-date encryption available and are processed via a system that has been certified and is compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). ESS does not store your credit/debit card details or your ESS account password. Only you can reset your ESS account password.

If you are performing an employment, volunteer, tenant or buyer screening, yes. According to the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), an individual must give you written permission to obtain information that bears on their credit worthiness, character, general reputation, personal characteristics or mode of living to establish eligibility for employment, volunteer, leasing or buying purposes. See FCRA/Releases for further understanding of this requirement and for releases/consent forms you may use to ensure this requirement is met. Please check all other applicable local, state, federal and international laws, and regulations for compliance.

No. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) prohibits age discrimination with respect to individuals who are at least 40 years old. However, date of birth is necessary to procure a criminal record during the employment, volunteer, tenant or buyer screening process since most courts rely on it as a primary identifier. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has stated a request for date of birth on an employment application "... is not, in itself, a violation of the Act," and has suggested an employer do the following to ensure ADEA compliance: 1) clearly identify the purpose for which date of birth information is to be used, e.g., identification purposes only; 2) make known to the applicant the purpose is not one proscribed by the ADEA, e.g., not to be used to discriminate based on age; and 3) use a separate sheet to record the date of birth so it can be removed before the ultimate decisionmaker sees the application.

No. One database housing every available criminal record across the country does not exist, no matter what someone might claim otherwise. The FBI's National Criminal Information Center (NCIC) database, confirming a record match with fingerprints, is ONLY available to law enforcement agencies and private industries authorized by law (childcare, financial institutions, healthcare). FBI records are NOT available to the public. Unauthorized use is a felony. Even the NCIC database does not house every criminal record available across the country. See Understanding Criminal Record Sources to understand in more detail what criminal records are available to you.

For maximum due diligence, a countywide criminal record check will yield the most accurate and complete records for a selected county and account for any counties that do not report to the nationwide database. In compliance with the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), if you are performing a tenant, buyer, employee or volunteer screening, prevailing practice bases a countywide check on an individual’s primary county or counties of residence for the last 7 years. Prevailing practice bases a statewide criminal record check on an individual’s primary state of residence for the last 7 years. Which is most accurate, complete, and cost-effective depends on the state.

Some states like New York include all their county records in their statewide database, by law, making a statewide search of New York more cost-effective and inclusive than a search of separate counties within that state. Conversely, some states such as California, do not include all their county records in their statewide database, making a separate search of individual counties more accurate, complete and cost-effective for that state. All Employment/Volunteer Screening Packages but Silver include a Countywide Criminal Record Check (one county - 7 years back). Call us at (561) 533-0488 or email help@empscreening.com and we can help you decide based on your subject's residential history, and the latest county and state pricing, and laws, rules and regulations.

If the disposition of a particular criminal record is missing, email help@empscreening.com or call (561) 533-0488 and we will follow up with the county or arresting agency of record to try and get it. We will email this information to you as soon as it's made available to us. Understand that this might take a few additional business days and might incur more expense, depending on the record source.

Anyone has the right to dispute a record result. Records come from public record sources where data entry errors, and other errors, might have been made. Records could be inadvertently and erroneously attributed to someone with a similar name and/or date of birth. Someone could be the victim of identity theft. Contact ESS at help@empscreening.com or (561) 533-0488 and we will investigate further to try and clarify any inaccurate or incomplete information. Might require more time and expense. Might require a lawyer. The individual could also contact the record source directly to clarify any misinformation. They could get a fingerprint card from their local police department or sheriff’s office to compare those results with the disputed criminal record, if applicable.

ESS has no control over the content of a record. We provide the content of that record. Under no circumstance is ESS responsible for any errors or omissions in the information provided of a record or for any consequential damages arising out of the use, or misuse, of the record information. ESS is not responsible for an individual’s approval or denial for residency, employment, a volunteer opportunity, or any other case scenario. Anyone conducting an employment, volunteer, tenant or buyer screening must comply with the requirements of the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), and other applicable local, state, federal and international laws, and regulations.

Double check the VIN or Plate No. and State you provided. If you're sure about the number and state and the search came back as a "no-hit," then that number most likely is not registered. Or registration is in one of these states that do not make this information available: California, Hawaii, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

Not enough recent account activity has occurred to receive a score, or not enough, or no, credit history has been established.

Double check all information provided and reorder if necessary. Have the individual contact the school or institution directly to clear up any possible misinformation. We have no control over the content of a record. We provide the content of that record.

Double check all information provided and reorder if necessary. Have the individual contact the employer directly to clear up any possible misinformation. We have no control over the content of a record. We provide the content of that record.

No. Whether or not a record was found, the work has been done, and payments made, to access records controlled by third parties based on what we can only assume is accurate information supplied by you. But remember too, the fact there is no record found can also provide you with a necessary piece to your screening puzzle. For example, if no credit score is reported, perhaps that means the individual has never established any credit.

The answer to both questions is no. Any database search you do yourself (instant) or have done (non-instant), no matter who, where, or how, produces public record results that are dependent on the thousands of county and state jurisdictions, sex offender registries, and departments, agencies, and other sources that report to it. The possibility of data entry errors, or any other errors, at a source always exists.

Data provided for any record is dependent on each source's recordkeeping, rules for releasing information, and many other factors. In some cases, a state, county, or smaller subdivision within might never have made data available to a database. Court records might only be available for viewing and copied at a courthouse, or they may be ordered online but only a court clerk, onsite, can search for and provide the records. In some cases, court record sources have attempted to protect personal identifiers by no longer providing social security numbers, dates of birth, or addresses to the database making record match identification difficult. Confidential and sealed cases and documents, and expunged records should not be available but might be. Some jurisdictions provide deeper history than others, often due to the advent of computerized recordkeeping, which has not occurred at the same time everywhere, and in some cases still hasn't occurred. Some jurisdictions provide more recent data than others. Some used to make records available but have recently stopped.

The record information you receive is a snapshot of time and might not reflect all action that has ever occurred on that record. Records could be inadvertently and erroneously attributed to someone with a similar name and/or date of birth. Someone could be the victim of identity theft. For maximum due diligence and the most accurate and complete records of a subject's criminal record history, particularly if you are performing a tenant, buyer, employment, or volunteer screening and in compliance with the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), a countywide onsite, court clerk-assisted criminal record search of the county or counties of your subject's primary residence for the last 7 years is recommended. It would account for an individual’s records in that county if that county jurisdiction does not report to the database or does but has redacted dates of birth from its records. All ESS Employment/Volunteer Screening Packages but Silver, include a Countywide Criminal Record Check (one county - 7 years back). All criminal record results should be verified at the source.

The goal of any screening is to cast as wide, realistic, and affordable a net as you can for your particular purpose with the realization that some records might be missed and the understanding that no records found does not mean with 100% certainty records do not exist.

If there is a question about the accuracy of a record result, contact ESS at help@empscreening.com or (561) 533-0488 and we will investigate to try and clarify misinformation, or provide further record information. Might require more time and expense. Might require an attorney. You or your subject could also contact the record source directly to clarify any incomplete or inaccurate information. Your subject could get a fingerprint card from the local police department or sheriff’s office to compare those results with the disputed criminal record, if applicable.

ESS has no control over the content of a record. We provide the content of that record. Under no circumstances is ESS responsible for any errors or omissions in the information provided of a record or for any consequential damages arising out of the use, or misuse, of the record information. ESS is not responsible for an individual’s approval or denial for residency, employment, a volunteer opportunity, or any other case scenario. Anyone conducting an employment, volunteer, tenant, or buyer screening must comply with the requirements of the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), and other applicable local, state, federal and international laws, and regulations.

ESS stores each report in your account for 30 days so you can view, download, forward, print, save and review at your convenience. You may access them any time. Additionally, all reports are emailed to the email you signed up with to use ESS.

Please call us at (561) 533-0488 or email help@empscreening.com and we'll be happy to help you. You may also consult Understanding Report Results.

ESS is closed New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, Friday before Memorial Day, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving Day, Friday after Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day, but you may submit screening order requests anytime on these days. You can expect results within 1-3 hours of the start of the next business day. You can also order Instant Record Checks anytime on those days and will receive the results instantly onscreen and to your email.