Clearinghouse Overview for CRA’s

The goal of the project is to expedite the updating of criminal records in private sector databases by collecting data from attorneys who practice this area of law, non-profit organizations, government agencies, and private individuals and then making that data available to participating consumer reporting agencies (CRAs).

There are several benefits for CRAs who participate in the free Criminal Record Clearinghouse program. First, participation reduces the legal liability for the CRA and their clients by taking a responsible step toward ensuring that the most accurate data is being reported. Second, it reduces the costs associated with record challenges caused by reporting criminal records that were already cleared or modified by the court by better enabling CRAs to remove such data before it is reported. Third, it reduces the costs of actual disputes because the Foundation will investigate up to 5 disputes a month for participating CRAs.

The Foundation for Continuing Justice is a non-profit legal foundation. CRAs who participate become clients of the Foundation. Therefore, the Foundation will have a professional duty to make sure all provided by the Foundation is accurate. The data updates include information to locate the potentially outdated data and instructions on how it should now be reported, if at all.

CRAs can elect to have updates sent in a data file once a week or to simply query the Foundation’s database at will. The Foundation has an in-house IT department that is able to help make the transfer of data easy and efficient for participating CRAs.

This service is free for CRAs. In fact, it is free for everyone (consumers, attorneys, etc) except for those consumers or attorneys who want to pay the fee for the expedited update. The only requirement is that participating CRAs agree to allow the Foundation to let consumers know that the CRA participates in the program.

If you are a CRA and would like to become a part of the Criminal Record Clearinghouse project, please contact Mathew Higbee at sign continuingjustice.org.

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If you would like to become a part of the Criminal Record Clearinghouse project, please contact Mathew Higbee at [email protected] or 714-617-8352.

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