California is the state where the federal rulebook is least sufficient on its own. Its own statute is stricter than the FCRA about what a screening company may report to you, its Fair Chance Act changes when you are allowed to look at all, and a court decision has made its county criminal searches materially slower than everywhere else. If you screen in one state and read one page of state law, read this one.
The seven-year limit here has no salary exception
Under the FCRA there is no time limit on reporting criminal convictions, and the seven-year cap on other adverse items lifts entirely for jobs above a federal salary threshold. California's Investigative Consumer Reporting Agencies Act, at Civil Code section 1786.18, bars reporting convictions older than seven years outright, with no equivalent escape hatch. A national provider running its default settings can therefore return more than a California employer may lawfully receive, and it is the employer who carries the exposure for acting on it. Ask any provider explicitly how it configures California.
You may not ask, or look, before a conditional offer
The California Fair Chance Act at Government Code section 12952 bars an employer with five or more employees from inquiring into criminal history until after a conditional offer of employment. If the record then gives you pause, the Act requires an individualised assessment of the conviction against the specific job, a written preliminary notice identifying the conviction, a copy of the report, and at least five business days for the applicant to respond before you may act. The Civil Rights Department's 2023 regulations tightened each of those steps and are the practical guide to running the sequence.
Why California county searches take longer
Following the Court of Appeal's decision in All of Us or None v. Hanlon, California trial court indexes are not searchable by date of birth, which is the identifier screening companies normally use to tie a court record to a specific applicant. Providers have had to fall back on slower manual and courthouse research. Build extra days into a California start date rather than reading the delay as a provider failure, and be sceptical of any provider promising California turnaround indistinguishable from Texas.
Local ordinances sit on top of all of this
The City and County of Los Angeles both operate their own fair chance ordinances with additional notice, posting and record-keeping duties, and San Francisco has its own. Where in California you are hiring changes what you owe, so a statewide policy written once and never revisited is the usual source of trouble. The two California notices also sit alongside, not instead of, the FCRA pre-adverse and adverse action notices, so a California rejection on a conviction generates a longer paper trail than the same rejection elsewhere.
Questions people ask about background check california
How far back can a background check go in California?
Seven years for convictions, under Civil Code section 1786.18, with no exception for high-salary roles. That is stricter than the FCRA, which places no age limit on reporting convictions at all.
When can I ask about criminal history in California?
After a conditional offer of employment, if you have five or more employees. The question may not appear on an application form, and looking into it before the conditional offer is itself the violation.
What is an individualised assessment?
A documented consideration of the nature and gravity of the offence, the time that has passed, and the nature of the job, before you may withdraw an offer over a conviction. California requires it by statute rather than as best practice.
Why is my California check taking longer than others?
California court indexes cannot be searched by date of birth following All of Us or None v. Hanlon, so providers do slower manual research to identify records reliably. It is a structural delay, not a provider problem.