By Lindsay Raddeman
American DataBank Staff Writer © 2007

When an applicant or consumer disputes the information contained in their complete background check report, American DataBank will assume all responsibility for the dispute as required by the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Per FCRA regulations, American DataBank has 30 days from the date of the request to re-investigate the contents of the disputed report, however, our internal procedures require that the investigation be completed within 15 days. Since your organization needs to make informed hiring decisions in a timely manner, we understand that this information is needed as soon as possible. American DataBank investigates disputes with this goal in mind, and, by conducting research in a thorough and expedient manner, enables you to bring the applicant onto your team or begin Adverse Action proceedings within your specified timeframe.

Here's how the dispute process works:

1.   All disputes or requests for additional information must be sent to American DataBank in writing. Applicants may send these requests via fax, e-mail or by mail. Faxing or e-mailing requests allows us to begin the investigations immediately upon receipt.

2.   The applicant's written request must contain the following information:

• Personal identifiers, including the full name, Social Security Number, date of birth, current address, and phone number.
• Current legal signature.
• A detailed description of the dispute as it pertains to the information contained within the report.

3.   American DataBank will notify your organization of the dispute, and will provide detailed status updates. This will include forwarding all correspondence between American DataBank and the applicant. No additional charges will be transferred to your organization for the dispute process.

4.   We will notify the court researcher responsible for the original report of the dispute and instruct him or her to re-investigate the information. It is our policy to re-research all disputed information.

5.   If the court determines that the information is inaccurate, we will make the appropriate changes to the applicant's report and provide both the applicant and your organization with updated copies of the report.

6.   In most cases, the applicants assume that we will automatically remove the disputed information from their reports without conducting any further investigation into the matter, however this is never the case. American DataBank will not remove any information from applicants' reports without thoroughly re-investigating the disputed information. We will only remove disputed records when official court documents indicate that the information is inaccurate.

The majority of disputes that applicants bring to our attention do not reveal any findings that indicate inaccurate findings. In the last two years, only 4 of the applicant disputes that we have investigated revealed errors on the court level.

American DataBank strives to provide our clients with the most accurate and up to date information available. Carefully selecting our sources, continuously testing our Researcher Network and enforcing stringent quality control protocols ensures that your organization will receive the results that it needs. In the rare event of a dispute, our FCRA-compliant dispute process and the consideration and respect that our staff shows to your applicants and their concerns reflect the same integrity that we bring to every facet of our business.