Will dropped assault charges hold me back on a background check?

[jj3540]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Georgia

I was just offered a job today, but I was told it will be contingent on my back ground check. The company asks in the application process "conducts criminal background checks (including bad checks, DUI, etc.) on all potential Team Members. Have you ever had any criminal convictions, felonies, misdemeanors, (this includes guilty or nolo contendere pleas, or imprisonment)*"- I have an assault, domestic bodily injury charge that was dropped upon the completion of anger management classes but am still worried it will show up. I ran a background check online and the arrest shows up even though it was not a conviction, should I be worried about getting this job in Georgia?

 

[HC1432]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Georgia

I was just offered a job today, but I was told it will be contingent on my back ground check. The company asks in the application process "conducts criminal background checks (including bad checks, DUI, etc.) on all potential Team Members. Have you ever had any criminal convictions, felonies, misdemeanors, (this includes guilty or nolo contendere pleas, or imprisonment)*"- I have an assault, domestic bodily injury charge that was dropped upon the completion of anger management classes but am still worried it will show up. I ran a background check online and the arrest shows up even though it was not a conviction, should I be worried about getting this job in Georgia?

So this was not an official conviction then?

Regardless, it may show up on the background check, it depends on the background check provider that the prospective employer uses.

Because the employer can only ask about convictions (and sometimes, not even those) on the application for employment, they should not deny you employment simply for your failure to disclose the charges. If the charge, arrest, etc does end up showing up on the CBC results that they receive, then whether you are denied employment will depend on whether the criminal history suggests that there are valid job-related reasons/risks associated with your results. In my experience, assault or other violent crimes are charges that are typically pretty easy to make that connection to the work, as most jobs require a degree of interaction with others employees or customers which is cause for concern related to negligent hiring risk associated with the potential for an assault. However, just being charged with an assault would likely not be enough to reasonably expect negligent hiring risk. They should take into account other factors such as: was this the only offense or were there multiple? and how long has it been since the last offense? Ultimately it is all about deciding whether it would be reasonably expected that due to the nature of this candidates criminal history that an assault or other serious incident could occur in the workplace? They would also likely ask you for more background information on the charge if they were concerned about it.

Again, depending on the nature of the position there is no guarantee that this will not affect your ability to be hired. However, I would say based solely on what you have described, without additional information about your criminal history and assuming the job does not hold special requirements uncommon to most positions, I would guess that it would be unlikely to affect your ability to be hired.

Good luck.