Buyers order background reports for months before anyone explains how to read one. The document has a predictable structure, and the two fields that decide most hiring outcomes are the ones people skim past: the disposition of a charge, and whether a database hit was confirmed at the court. This page walks through the report as it arrives.
What does a background check look like? The sections you will see
A typical report opens with the subject's identifiers and the address history returned by the trace, which is worth reading first because it tells you which jurisdictions were searched and therefore what the rest of the report covers. Then come the searches, each listed with its scope and result: national database, sex offender registry, each county criminal court by name, federal district courts if ordered, and any verifications or driving record. Each search shows either a clear result or the records found. A report that lists one county for a candidate with a four-state address history has told you where it did not look.
How to read a record entry
A criminal record entry shows the jurisdiction, the case number, the charge as filed, the date, the level of offence, and the disposition. Disposition is the outcome and it is the field that matters most: convicted, dismissed, acquitted, deferred adjudication, nolle prosequi. A charge filed is not a conviction, and EEOC guidance is clear that an arrest without a conviction does not by itself establish that the underlying conduct occurred. If the disposition field is blank or reads pending, that is a question for the provider before it is a decision about the candidate.
The two words worth looking for
Verified, or confirmed at source, next to a record means somebody checked the originating court rather than reporting a database hit straight through. That is what the FCRA's accuracy standard expects, and its absence is the thing to query. The second is the scope note on the national database search: reputable reports say plainly that the database has variable coverage and is not a comprehensive national index, because a clear database result is much weaker evidence than a clear county search in the right county.
What you do with it next
If nothing in the report changes your decision, keep it with your hiring records and move on. If something does, the FCRA sequence starts: a pre-adverse action notice with a copy of the report and the Summary of Your Rights, a reasonable period for the candidate to respond and dispute, then a final adverse action notice. Give them the whole report, not the part you object to. A candidate who can see the entry is a candidate who can tell you it belongs to somebody else with the same name, which happens more often than most employers expect.
A sample background check report, and the three things to look at first
Ask every provider for a specimen report before you sign, and read three things in it. First, whether each record carries a disposition, because a filing without an outcome is not a finding and a report that does not distinguish them is pushing the judgement onto you. Second, how the identity match is expressed: a good report says how confident it is and on what, a weak one simply lists records. Third, what the report does with an item it could not verify, since the honest answer is to say so rather than to leave a silence you will read as a clear result. A specimen also tells you whether the provider's own summary judgements are separable from the underlying records, which matters because the decision has to be yours.
Questions people ask about background report
What does a background report contain?
Subject identifiers and address history, then each search with its scope and result: national database, sex offender registry, named county courts, federal courts if ordered, plus any verifications or driving record.
What does disposition mean?
The outcome of a charge: convicted, dismissed, acquitted, deferred adjudication and so on. It is the most important field on any record entry, and a blank or pending disposition is a question for the provider before it is a decision.
Does a record on the report mean a conviction?
No. A charge filed is not a conviction, and EEOC guidance is that an arrest without conviction does not establish that the conduct occurred. Read the disposition before you read the charge.
Should I show the candidate the report?
Yes, if you are considering acting on it. The FCRA requires you to provide a copy with the pre-adverse action notice, and it is also how identity mix-ups get caught.
How to read a background check: where do people go wrong?
By reading a record as a conviction. Most of the misreadings come from the same three places: a filing with no disposition treated as an outcome, an arrest treated as a finding, and a name match accepted without checking the identifiers. Read the disposition field first, then the date, then the identifiers, and where any of the three is missing treat it as a question for the provider rather than as a fact about the candidate.