LexisNexis goes back only seven years?

OK so I'm doing all the legwork to get myself into a Community College trucking course, and hopefully on to a job hauling in the Texas oilpatch. Everything was moving right along until I decided to run a personal background check.

I'm no Al Capone, but abck in the ancient times I got into a few minor scrapes with the law, and I wanted to kind of refresh my memory. Most of this stuff happened 30-35 years ago, so it's not like I have been dwelling on any of it lately. I figure the LexisNexis site is best since that's what the coppers use.

Sooo, I go on the LexisNexis website and pays me $24.95 and get ready to read the gory details. <CLICK> .pdf is now downloading, dum dee dum...(checks baseball scores), scratches leg, searches for lint in navel, etc. etc. and Ding! it finished downloading. Man I'm gonna get to re-live old times!

So I open the .pdf and page one is my name and ssn and a couple other things I have no idea what they are. Looks good.

Page two: Current address, more mumbo-jumbo, Check!

Page three: Previous addresses and such, but now I notice there are a lot of addresses that should be there that aren't. WTH?

Page four looks like a directory of phone numbers and addresses for consumer reporting agencies. C'mon guys I wanna read about my crime spree (I gotta ego you know).

Page five: THE END

My criminal background check shows zip, zilch, nada. To tell you the truth, I was kinda insulted that they didn't think my one-man crime wave was worthy of documenting.

So I called 'em up. Gotta be the first guy in the history of LN that calls to complain that his background is clean.

They told me they only go back seven years. I told them I need to go back at least 35 or so, and they said they don't have those records. So I said that perspective employers in the field I am about to join (or maybe not) are likely going to look back that far. I need this info so I can think about what happened and give people correct answers when they ask me uncomfortable questions.

Here's what they told me in the first call: I can only get my records going back seven years, but an employer with an account can go back as far as they want. Well, that hardly seems fair and I called 'em on it.

I said to them, well this is not going to work and this report is useless to me and I want a refund. So, they direct me to the proper people to get the refund thing moving. They were surpringly nice about it. I figured it was gonna be $24.95 down the drain so I was going to get some yelling practice in. But they are refunding, or at least that's what they said. I dunno I'll have to look at my checking account later.

But something else happened while doing the refund thing. I decided to persist with the "It's not fair that an employer gets to go back to the beginning of time when it comes to my background, but I can only go back seven years" argument, and the CSR handling the refund says that in reality, employers can only go back to about 1991 or 1992 and even then there won't be much info. I assume it's because that far back would be paper records, and they are just siting in courthouse basements, probably just moldering away.

Sooo, that means that if you have something going on befor '92 or so, then it looks lik the chances are an employer can't find it unless they launch like, a federal investigation or something. I know that the trucking companies are super-safety and security conscious and all, but I get the feeling that when they tell you they are going back forever, it's just a scare tactic to get you to admit to stuff they can't find on their own.

Anyone have any more info on this kind of stuff? I kinda want to get all this stuff together so as not to trip myself up in an interview. Is there any place that would be a repository for this stuff? It's gotta show up somewhere. I mean there's good stuff that should show up too, like military and school time. Where do I get it all? Employera are obviously going to find it and I want to see it too.

Sorry I went on so long. Sometimes I can't help but make fun of myself.

 

Well, LN is what the cops used to use when they ran your plates or opp licence. That's why I used them. I knew my record would be fine for the last seven years. I just thought LN would go back further.

What's the CBI thing? I'm gonna have to look into that when I get home tonight. If it can seal your record, I'm there tomorrow.

 

Thanks, I appreciate that.

I'm not overly concerned; I figure a company that would bother to question me about something that happened 35 years ago is not a company I want to to work for anyway. None of the stuff is a felony, and none of it even resulted in the damage or loss of property.

 

Actually, I live in So. Texas. I just spend more time up on the East Coast than at home because of my current job. I am actually making the career move into driving because I want MORE time at home. Go figure

The rigors don't scare me. My current job can push you to your physical limits. I routinley work with, and out-work guys half my age. I'm not worried about hauling hoses or climbing up on catwalks.

I'm also used to working seven days a week for weeks on end. The rare off-day is usually a day to travel to the next town.

As far as the TWIC Card goes, according to all sources, I am eligible. Matter of fact I was going to start that process up in Baltimore next week, so as to have the card waiting for me in Corpus in October.

Hazmat is something I'm not concerned about at this point, although Tanker endorsement is. I'm not sure they, or I want me to be hauling hazmat right out of school.

I'm pretty sure everything's going to be OK, but I read so much negative stuff about background checks and DAC files on these forums. I have to wonder how much of it is just plain exaggeration.

What is FAST? This is the first I have heard of it. No one at the school or on these boards have mentioned it. Thanks again.