Will Dismissed Charges Show on Background Check?

How Dismissed Criminal Charges Are Recorded and Reported

When an individual is arrested or issued a citation, multiple independent government agencies create corresponding official records. Law enforcement creates an arrest booking report and fingerprints the individual, while the local prosecutor files charging instruments with the county or municipal court clerk. Even if the prosecuting attorney later files a nolle prosequi motion or the presiding judge dismisses the case for lack of evidence, those actions are merely appended to the case docket as the final legal disposition rather than erasing the case file entirely.

Commercial background screening agencies, known under federal law as Consumer Reporting Agencies (CRAs), harvest public data directly from courthouse electronic dockets and state repository indexes. When conducting an employment screening, the CRA report typically displays the initial arrest date, the original charged offense, and the ultimate disposition as dismissed. For hiring managers, this transparently shows that an accusation was made and subsequently thrown out, demonstrating no finding of guilt.

This breakdown details how dismissed criminal charges are treated across different categories of background checks and regulatory frameworks.

Federal FCRA Guidelines vs State Specific Protections

The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) establishes the baseline regulatory framework for commercial pre-employment investigations. Under Section 605 of the FCRA, non-conviction records—which explicitly include dismissed charges, acquitted trials, and dropped indictments—cannot be reported by commercial screening agencies after seven years from the date of final entry. However, convictions may be reported indefinitely under federal rules, creating a distinct legal boundary between dismissed matters and formal guilty verdicts.

Numerous states provide far more robust privacy protections that supersede federal FCRA allowances. In progressive jurisdictions such as California, Massachusetts, Washington, and New York, consumer reporting laws strictly forbid private background screening companies from reporting arrests or charges that did not lead to a conviction, regardless of how recently the dismissal occurred. In these protective jurisdictions, employers cannot legally consider dismissed criminal charges at any stage of the hiring evaluation.

The following structured reference contrasts key differences between dropped, dismissed, acquitted, and expunged criminal records.

How Employers Evaluate Dismissals and Steps to Expunge

When hiring managers review background reports that list a dismissed criminal charge, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) requires them to exercise caution. Under EEOC enforcement guidance, employers cannot enforce blanket exclusions against applicants based solely on arrest records or dismissed charges, because an arrest does not establish unlawful conduct. Employers must conduct an individualized assessment evaluating the nature of the alleged offense, how long ago it occurred, and whether the underlying facts bear direct relevance to specific workplace duties.

For applicants wishing to eliminate dismissed charges from public view entirely, pursuing a statutory judicial expunction or expungement order is the most definitive solution. Unlike convictions, dismissed charges are almost universally eligible for expungement across every state. Once an expungement order is signed by a judge and distributed to state law enforcement bureaus and commercial database aggregators, all records of the arrest, charging document, and court appearance are legally deleted, allowing candidates to state with absolute confidence that the event never occurred.