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Why employers need to perform employment screening background checks on attorneys, doctors and other regulated professions

Guest post by: Lester Rosen

Article Overview: A story “ripped from the headlines:” demonstrates why law firms need to perform background checks on lawyers and provides valuable lessons on the value of due diligence in hiring in all regulated professionals. Just because an applicant has a professional license does not mean an employer should let their guard down. Even if employers believe that when hiring regulated professionals there is less chance a background check will reveal something negative, the harm a professional can do is substantial.

Why employers need to perform employment screening background checks on attorneys, doctors and other regulated professions

It is an urban myth that licensed professionals such as doctors, lawyers or teachers, do not need background checks. Just because a person is in a regulated profession, employers cannot assume that background checks are not needed. One of the reasons perhaps that employers may sometime let their guard down when it comes to regulated professions is that employers may assume that a person would not have obtained the professional license in the first place if there was a relevant criminal record or the person had falsified their credentials. Although this approach may carry some weight when it comes to brand new doctors, lawyers, etc, it quickly falls apart for professionals that are no longer new. That is because the disciplinary and regulatory systems to track, process and react to criminal violations or misconduct varies widely by profession and by states. It is not difficult for matters to fall through the cracks.

For example, a person with a professional license can commit a crime and "beat the discipline" by getting licensed in another state before the regulatory body takes action in the first state. In some professions, it can take considerable time for the regulatory agency to take action. Depending upon the state and the profession, it is possible that the regulators may even miss the criminal matter entirely, not have enough staff to investigate or the crime may result in some lesser sanction short of denial of a professional license.

Another reason to perform a background check on licensed professionals was demonstrated recently in story reported in Connecticut in January, 2010. According to the account given, an attorney faces a grievance action based upon allegations that when he applied for the legal department of a state agency, his resume contained false statements. The allegation is that the attorney lied by falsely claiming he graduated with honors and served on the Law Review, and that he worked for a law office that turned out never existed.

In an interesting twist, the accused lawyer defended against the allegation on the basis that the attorney never applied for the job or went to the interview, and that someone pretended to be him. The story appeared Jan, 2010 in the The Connecticut Law Tribune.

Although such incidents may be less likely when it comes to regulated professionals, it is also true that the impact and potential harm can be substantial. If a doctors, lawyers or teachers for example are able to get away with hiding a criminal record or falsifying a resume, the public can be put at great risk.

The bottom line is that law firms, medical facilities, schools or other institutions that hire regulated professionals put the public at great risk with a bad hiring decision, and therefore has a higher duty of care. Conducting due diligence with a background check is the bet way to avoid a lawsuit for negligent hiring and harm to the public. Porfessioanl background screening firms such as Employment Screening Resources can conduct background checks nationwide on licensed professionals.

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Article Tags: background checks, background screening, credentail verification, employee screening, employment screening



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