Some jurisdictions add an extra layer of protection against companies being (maybe intentionally) "sloppy" with where they pull data by mandating sequencing: Yo

Some jurisdictions add an extra layer of protection against companies being (maybe intentionally) "sloppy" with where they pull data by mandating sequencing: You first have to make a conditional offer, and only then is it legal to pull criminal history. If you find a big red flag in the criminal history, you are still allowed to rescind the offer. But obviously at that point you had better be prepared to defend your rescission, so companies tend to make sure that they are using the real/legal criminal-history documentation there. I first ran across this when I rented an apartment in Washington, D.C., which has that rule for housing (I hadn't previously seen that sequence of "conditional housing offer" followed by criminal-history check, followed by final housing offer). But it looks like at least California (as of 2018) requires that for employment too, with pulling criminal history only allowed after sending out the conditional job offer: https://www.californiaemploymentlawreport.com/2018/01/californias-prohibition-seeking-relying-upon-criminal-histories-starting-january-1-2018/ https://www.californiaemploymentlawreport.com/2018/01/califo... Of course, this doesn't stop blatantly illegal behavior, where a company uses un-expunged third-party databases pre-offer and just doesn't tell the candidate why they were denied. But at that point you're nowhere near having plausible deniability, which most bigger companies would like.