Do Only Convictions Show on a Background Check?

A background check shows more than criminal convictions. Depending on the type of report and the laws that apply, it can include arrests that never led to a conviction, pending criminal charges, active warrants, civil lawsuits and judgments, bankruptcies, credit history, driving records, and verifications of past employment, education, and professional licenses. So the honest answer to what shows up on a background check besides convictions is: quite a lot, but federal and state rules put real limits on how far back most of it can go.

Non-Conviction Items That Can Appear

The criminal side of a report is not just a list of guilty verdicts. Pending cases frequently show up. If charges have been filed against you and the case has not been resolved, a screening company can report that you are currently facing charges, and an employer may see that even though no court has determined guilt.

Arrests that never led to a conviction are another common entry. A report might show you were taken into custody years ago even if the charges were later dropped or dismissed. Active warrants can appear as well.

Beyond the criminal category, a comprehensive background check often reaches into other areas depending on the role:

Driving records, including license status, traffic violations, and recent infractions, common for any position involving a company vehicle.
Credit history, including payment history, outstanding debts, and bankruptcies, typically pulled for jobs with financial responsibilities.
Civil court records, including lawsuits and civil judgments.
Employment and education verification, confirming previous job titles, dates, and degrees.
Professional license verification, confirming that a license is active and in good standing for regulated fields like nursing, accounting, or real estate.

A background check is not a conviction check. It is a snapshot of your interactions with the criminal justice system and, often, several adjacent systems, filtered through rules that vary based on who is asking and where you live.

The Seven-Year Limit on Non-Conviction Information

The Fair Credit Reporting Act is the main federal law controlling what a third-party screening company can include in a background report used for employment, housing, or credit decisions.¹ It draws a sharp line between convictions and everything else.

Convictions have no federal time limit. A screening company can report a conviction from 30 years ago the same as one from last year. Arrests that did not lead to a conviction, however, fall off after seven years from the date of the arrest. The same seven-year ceiling applies to civil suits, civil judgments, and other adverse information that is not a conviction.² The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has clarified that the seven-year clock for non-conviction records starts running at the time of the charge, not at the disposition, and later events do not restart it.³

There is one significant exception. If the position pays $75,000 or more per year, the seven-year limit on non-conviction records does not apply. An employer hiring for a six-figure role can legally see arrest records and other adverse information going back indefinitely.²

Expunged and Sealed Records Sometimes Still Appear

Having a record expunged or sealed is supposed to remove it from public view, but screening companies do not always catch the update. The CFPB has stated that a screening company is not following reasonable accuracy procedures if it lacks a system to prevent reporting records that have been expunged, sealed, or otherwise legally restricted from public access.⁴ The underlying legal requirement is that every screening company must follow reasonable procedures to ensure maximum possible accuracy of the information it reports.⁵

In practice, many screening companies rely on databases that are not updated promptly, so expunged records continue to appear on reports months or even years after a court granted the expungement. If this happens to you, you can dispute the report, and the screening company must investigate and remove inaccurate information. Keep a certified copy of any expungement order so you can provide it during a dispute.

How State Laws Narrow What Shows Up

Federal law is the floor. Many states go further. Some prohibit reporting any arrest that did not lead to a conviction, regardless of how recent it is. Others have enacted their own seven-year limit on conviction records, a restriction that does not exist under federal law. The specifics vary widely, so the state where you live or where the employer is located determines which rules apply. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has noted that state and local fair employment agencies may provide additional rights beyond what federal law offers.⁶

Credit checks are a second area where states have added limits. More than a dozen states and several major cities restrict employment-related credit checks, generally allowing them only for positions with financial responsibilities or fiduciary duties. If your job does not involve handling money or sensitive financial data, an employer in one of these jurisdictions may not be permitted to pull your credit at all.

How Employers Can Use Non-Conviction Information

Even when a non-conviction item legally appears on a report, an employer cannot use it however it wants. The EEOC has issued guidance explaining that blanket policies excluding anyone with a criminal record can violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act if they disproportionately affect applicants based on race or national origin.⁷

The EEOC treats arrests and convictions differently. An arrest alone does not establish that criminal conduct occurred, so an employer that rejects applicants based solely on the fact of an arrest risks liability. An employer can, however, consider the conduct underlying an arrest if it makes the individual unfit for the specific position.⁷

For convictions, the EEOC recommends an individualized assessment weighing three factors: the nature and seriousness of the offense, how much time has passed since the offense or completion of the sentence, and the nature of the job being sought.⁷ An old, minor conviction unrelated to the position should carry far less weight than a recent, serious offense directly related to the role.

If Something You Didn’t Expect Shows Up

Background check errors are more common than most people realize. Mismatched identities from common names, outdated records that should have been removed, and cases attributed to the wrong person all show up regularly. Federal law gives you the right to dispute the information.

Once you notify the screening company of the error, it must conduct a free reinvestigation and resolve the dispute within 30 days. If you provide additional relevant information during that window, the company gets up to 15 extra days, but only if the information has not already been found inaccurate or unverifiable. If the disputed item turns out to be inaccurate or cannot be verified, the screening company must promptly delete or correct it and notify the data source that supplied the bad information.⁸

If the reinvestigation does not resolve your dispute, you can file a brief statement explaining the disagreement, and the screening company must include that statement, or a summary of it, in any future report containing the disputed information. You can also ask the company to send notice of the correction or your dispute statement to anyone who received the report for employment purposes within the past two years.⁸

The dispute right pairs with another protection: if an employer plans to reject you based partly or entirely on a background check, it must send you a pre-adverse action notice first, along with a copy of the report and a summary of your rights under the FCRA. That way you can review the report before the decision is final. After a reasonable waiting period, if the employer still moves forward, a second, final adverse action notice is required, listing the screening company’s contact information, a statement that the screening company did not make the hiring decision, and information about your right to get a free copy of the report within 60 days and to dispute inaccurate information.⁹ If you were rejected without ever seeing a copy of the report, the employer may owe you damages regardless of whether the report was accurate.

1
Federal Trade Commission. What Employment Background Screening Companies Need to Know About the Fair Credit Reporting Act
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports
3
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR Part 1022 – Fair Credit Reporting Background Screening
4
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. CFPB Addresses Inaccurate Background Check Reports and Sloppy Credit File Sharing Practices
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 US Code 1681e – Compliance Procedures
6
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Arrest and Conviction Records – Resources for Job Seekers, Workers and Employers
7
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Enforcement Guidance on the Consideration of Arrest and Conviction Records in Employment Decisions
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681i – Procedure in Case of Disputed Accuracy
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 US Code 1681m – Requirements on Users of Consumer Reports