To embed, copy and paste the code into your website or blog: Addressing a recurring issue bedeviling the background screening industry, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit confirmed on December 4 that it is not inaccurate for a consumer reporting agency (CRA) to report a criminal or sex-offender record without matching the record to a subject consumer, so long as the CRA notifies the user that the record needs further investigation before being attributed to an individual. This seemingly technical ruling under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) goes to the heart of criminal background screening by CRAs in the U.S. since criminal records in the United States, in a great majority of cases, do not contain definitive identifying information such as social security numbers or even specific dates of birth. This means that many providers of criminal background screenings provide records in response to a screening without matching to a specific individual, leaving it to the user of the data to conclude whether the record applies to a given individual. This practice has been challenged across the country in private lawsuits; now, the Eleventh Circuit has weighed in, and validated that reporting unmatched results can comply with the FCRA.