More than 100,000 felonies may not have appeared during background checks with the state Department of Justice
Nearly 330,000 people whose convictions in Los Angeles County went unreported for decades will soon have their rap sheets updated and, potentially, their employers notified for the first time.
Some could lose their jobs if the conviction would have disqualified them from the position they have, while others may have professional licenses revoked or firearms confiscated, experts say.
The massive update to criminal histories follows the discovery of an error within the Los Angeles County Superior Court’s previous case management system that prevented 464,000 arrest disposition reports, including 147,631 felony convictions and 233,003 misdemeanors, from being added to a statewide criminal record repository from 1980 to 2023.
As a result, background checks relying on the California Department of Justice repository may not have listed those convictions before now, potentially allowing people to obtain jobs they shouldn’t or wouldn’t have been hired for otherwise.
That includes the “Live Scan” fingerprint checks commonly used by licensing boards, law enforcement agencies, schools, health care providers and financial institutions throughout the state.
“The lack of conviction information in the DOJ database may have led someone to pass a background check who otherwise would not have passed if the information had been in the database,” according to the Superior Court’s website. “How licensing agencies or employers will treat the new information is unknown to the Court.”
Nearly 40,000 of the people whose felony convictions went unreported did not have any prior or subsequent DOJ record and may have appeared to have a clean record due to the error.
Another 84,000 cases ended in dismissals, but that outcome wasn’t reflected in their criminal history either.
The Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office, which offers free expungement services, has requested additional information from the courts to “better understand the scope of this announcement, as well as the extent of the impact it will have on the people we serve,” communications director Natalin Daldalian said. “At the same time, we are proactively working to identify matters that may be eligible for reduction, vacatur, sealing, or that may no longer constitute crimes due to changes in legislation, and the resources needed to provide support for those impacted.
“Any interaction with the criminal legal system can have serious consequences,” Daldalian added. “The decades-long delay in reporting amplifies immigration risks, firearm eligibility issues, employment barriers, and professional licensing impacts for people who did not have the opportunity to properly address their records.”
About a quarter to a third of all jobs require a government-issued license, said David Schlussel, a staff attorney with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, a nonprofit that operates expungement clinics.
“It could throw into question some people’s ability to hold those licenses or jobs,” he said. “That would not only create financial instability, but also create new stresses that…
This could also add a conviction to someones record who already has one due to a software glitch.
My past experience with child support court was very bad as every time they changed software, the data wasn’t transferred properly and it increased my arreages by $178,000.
It took me 4 years to finally get it corrected.
Anything older than 7 years from today should not have any impact and shouldn’t be able to be seen. That’s kind of the typical basic background check starting point.