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Background Checks: The New Burden of Proof

By Tal Moise and Steven T. Sledzik
September 27, 2006

Negligent hiring cases typically turn on whether a background check that was forgone would have helped to reveal an employee's propensity to erupt in violence or commit fraud. But a new burden of proof may be on the horizon.

In 2005, a lawsuit was filed that alleges that Federal Express (FedEx) failed to ferret out a sex offender who molested a boy he met at work. FedEx claims his criminal record was clean. The boy's attorney, Neal Rogan, said: 'That person is either lying or Federal Express is wildly incompetent in how they do background checks.'

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