Conducting an Illinois Background Check: What You Need to Know

Cindy Ellis - October 10, 2023

Whether you’re interviewing new roommates or sizing up a new romantic partner you’ve just begun dating, you can’t always trust your gut feeling about a person. It’s sometimes necessary to learn about their past to ensure they’re trustworthy.

Luckily, you don’t have to accept any statements they might make about their past at face value. In Illinois and other states, you can instead conduct a background check.

The following guide explains what you need to know about the process of conducting an Illinois background check. It explains why you might conduct a background check, what types of information they may provide, and how employers can use them under federal and state laws.

What Information Does an Illinois Background Check Offer?

The information a background check report may provide you with can vary depending on what service or tool you use. Generally, though, a background check tool may provide the following information about a person:

• Any past names or identities they may have gone by
• Past addresses
• General contact information
• Educational background
• Relatives
• Social media and online dating accounts
• Court records and criminal history
• Marital status
• Age
• Date of birth

Determine what types of information you’re looking for when you decide you wish to conduct a background check on someone. If you take this step first, you can more easily find the right background check tool or service for your needs.

Reasons to Conduct an Illinois Background Check

You might assume you can conduct a background check in Illinois to pre-screen job candidates and tenants. That’s not necessarily the case. As the following section of this overview explains, federal law limits the extent to which employers, landlords, and related parties may use background checks to make decisions regarding job offers, housing offers, etc.

However, there are many other reasons to conduct an Illinois background check that are perfectly legal. Consider the following examples:

Identifying an Unknown Caller

Has someone anonymously been contacting you? With an Illinois background check tool that offers reverse phone number lookup features, you might be able to identify them.

You should of course reach out to law enforcement if you believe someone who has been contacting you is guilty of harassment. Don’t trust a background check tool to keep you safe from someone who may wish to do you harm. That said, being able to use such a tool to identify an anonymous caller could nevertheless prove very helpful.

Researching New Roommates and Neighbors

Landlords need to be careful to ensure they’re complying with all relevant laws when using background check services to screen potential tenants. However, someone who is interviewing potential roommates could use a background check service to determine whether they feel comfortable living with certain individuals.

You could also use an Illinois background check tool to gather information about your new neighbors in general.

While you should be careful when using or sharing this information, you may benefit from having a more thorough sense of who you’re living among.

Finding Friends and Family

Social media has made it easier than ever to track down people from your past. That said, not everyone is active on social media.

This is another reason you may have for conducting a background check. Doing so may be an effective means of getting back in touch with old family members and friends.

Learning About Yourself

Researching your family members by conducting background checks could theoretically provide you with more information about yourself and your relationship with distant family members.

Perhaps more significantly, you can also conduct a background check on yourself in Illinois. You might do so to learn what types of information others may find if they were to look into your background. If you know what information is out there, you can more effectively plan to address it.

Researching New Partners

Conducting an Illinois background check may help you avoid wasting time cultivating a new romantic relationship with someone who might not be trustworthy. If you begin dating someone you wish to learn more about, legally researching their background can give you the peace of mind that comes from knowing they don’t have a criminal history.

How the Fair Credit and Reporting Act Affects Illinois Background Checks

The Fair Credit and Reporting Act (FCRA) establishes relatively strict laws regarding how employers, landlords, and other such parties may conduct background checks and how they may act on any information they receive via third-party background check reports.

Never use a background check tool or service for pre-employment screening or tenant screening purposes if the service isn’t clearly designed for FCRA-compliant usage. If an employer or other such party decides to take an adverse action against an individual due to something they discovered through a background check, they must:

• First obtain written authorization from an applicant giving the employer permission to conduct a background check
• Contact the service through which they conduct background checks, proving the service with confirmation they have written employee authorization to proceed
• Provide the applicant with a “pre-adverse action” letter explaining that a background check has revealed information that may give the employer reason to reject the applicant
• Provide the applicant with reasonable time (usually five business days) to respond to the letter

An employer may send a letter confirming they plan to move forward with an adverse action if the applicant doesn’t successfully address questionable background check findings. Employers who skip these steps may be the targets of claims and lawsuits.

Illinois Background Checks: State Laws You Need to Be Aware Of

The FCRA is the main federal law regarding how various parties can both conduct background checks and use the information they uncover via said background checks.

When conducting a background check in Illinois, it’s important to understand that various state laws may also apply. They are:

Job Opportunities for Qualified Applicants Act

This law establishes when an employer can begin looking into a candidate’s criminal history in Illinois. Under the statute, employers with 15 or more employees may only look into an applicant’s criminal background after one or both of the following:

• The employer has scheduled an interview with the applicant and has already determined they possess the qualifications necessary for the position they’re seeking
• The employer has made a conditional job offer to an applicant already

There are exceptions when this law may not apply. For example, some laws require employers to exclude job candidates from consideration if they’ve been convicted of certain crimes relating to the duties of the jobs for which they’re applying.

Then, it may be necessary for an employer to conduct a criminal background check earlier in the process to avoid wasting time considering an applicant who legally can’t fill a role.

Typically, however, unless you’re confident these laws apply to you, it’s best to err on the side of caution and adhere to the Job Opportunities for Qualified Applicants Act. The law also prohibits employers from:

• Asking applicants about past arrests and/or offenses for which they were not convicted
• Asking applicants about past sealed records
• Making hiring decisions based on arrests or convictions from sealed or expunged records

It’s often best to coordinate with your HR department or qualified legal professionals when conducting an Illinois background check for pre-employment screening purposes. Their familiarity with the relevant laws can help you ensure you’re conducting background checks properly and using the reports legally.

Illinois SB 1480

This amendment strengthens the above statute by clearly establishing that employers in Illinois cannot make hiring decisions based on past criminal convictions unless:

• They can demonstrate there is a strong relationship between the nature of the job a candidate is seeking and the nature of their past conviction
• They can demonstrate that hiring a particular applicant might jeopardize the safety and health of employees, customers, or others in the workplace

Illinois SB 140 requires employers to account for the following factors when determining whether an applicant’s past convictions should influence hiring decisions:

• When the individual received their conviction
• The number of convictions an applicant has in their background
• The nature of the crime for which the individual received a conviction
• The general “facts and circumstances” of the case
• The applicant’s age at the time of the conviction
• The degree to which the applicant has made efforts to rehabilitate themselves

Only after accounting for all these factors can an employer decide whether a candidate’s past convictions are relevant to the job they’ve applied for. If an employer believes they can reject a candidate based on a past conviction, they will need to complete a process similar to that of the adverse action process under the FCRA.

Employee Background Fairness Act

The legal requirements of the Employee Background Fairness Act as they apply to employers are essentially the same as those of Illinois SB 1480. The main difference is that Illinois SB 1480 was an amendment to an existing law, whereas this statute is a new law that solidifies those requirements.

Mistakes to Avoid Making When Conducting an Illinois Background Check

Ensuring you’re following the law is critical when conducting background checks and acting on their results. Other errors you can make that might result in everything from an inaccurate report to legal trouble include:

• Using unverified information to conduct a background check, as you may not be able to trust the information that comes back
• Tracking down someone’s contact information to harass them, stalk them, or otherwise contact them against their will
• Looking into the background of household helpers you may be thinking of hiring
• Checking whether someone has the financial qualifications necessary to participate in a financial program

You must never conduct an Illinois background check for the purpose of stealing someone’s identity. Doing so is both illegal and an abuse of a background check service.

Tips for Conducting Successful Illinois Background Checks

Choosing a reputable tool or service is among the best ways to improve the quality of your background check reports. Other tips to consider when looking into someone’s background in Illinois include:

• Gather as much information as you have about someone beforehand, as the more information you provide to a background check service or tool, the easier it will be for the service to generate a thorough and accurate report.
• Consider letting someone know you’re conducting a background check on them beforehand, as proving such a notification is a legal requirement in some circumstances.
• Clearly state for yourself (and the person you’re looking into if you decide to notify them) your reasons for conducting a background check into someone, as doing so can help you remember to use the information from the final report in a genuinely productive manner.
• Don’t keep background check reports and any documentation related to them in employee files, student files, etc., without first confirming you have a legal right to do so.

As always, you should also coordinate with any relevant legal professionals whenever you have questions about the legality of how you’re using background checks. Don’t conduct a background check or act on the results of one if there is any question regarding whether you’re doing so ethically and legally.

Illinois Background Checks Help You Learn Valuable Information

The information an Illinois background check report provides you with can serve many useful purposes. Hopefully, this overview has helped you better understand how you may go about conducting one. As long as you obey the law and use a quality background check service, looking into someone’s background can help you determine how trustworthy they may be.