As we communicated on September 15, 2021, Los Angeles (L.A.) County, California has removed public access to full date of birth information, which is impacting all court researchers and screening companies. Full date of birth information (month, date and year of birth) is a key identifier that is used to match candidates to court records. With this change, the L.A. County Court has made it increasingly difficult, and in some cases impossible, to obtain sufficient identifiers needed to fulfill and complete searches.
Sterling continues to offer services in all California counties, however, please be advised that a small percentage of criminal checks in L.A. County may take longer than usual due to the additional steps needed to look for additional identifiers. In addition, due to the clerk’s action, some searches are no longer able to be completed, and will be designated as unperformable.
Unperformable does not mean that there is something in the record that pertains to the candidate. It simply means that the search was not able to be fully performed—it could not be completed at the time it was submitted due to the lack of information available from the Court.
Sterling is exploring all possible avenues to fulfill all of your search requests, including working with our trade associations to restore access to full date of birth. Unfortunately, there is no quick path to resolution, and we anticipate this issue will continue in the foreseeable future. While the issue today is limited to L.A. County, we are monitoring the situation closely and will update clients if other counties follow suit.
We will continue to keep you up to date, and we understand that you may have questions and concerns, so please feel free to contact your Sterling Client Success representative.
Sterling is not a law firm and does not dispense legal advice. The information provided herein is general business information, is not based on any particular facts or situations, and is not to be relied upon as legal advice, even if you are currently a client of Sterling. You are encouraged to seek advice from your own legal counsel concerning matters covered in this notice.