July 31, 2008

The Vail Daily newspaper recently published an update to the story of a Vail, CO resort currently involved in a lawsuit. The suit stems from an employment background check that did not do enough to uncover a ski instructor’s criminal background. The ski instructor in question was charged with rape of a 17 years old ski student. The instructor was found not guilty, but the family of the girl now has a lawsuit against the ski resort.

 The lawsuit claims that the resort had advertised that they always ran an employment background check on all their applicants. In fact, the human resources director did run a background check on the instructor in 2004 but it only revealed a glimpse of his criminal past.

During the criminal trial proceedings it was revealed that his criminal rap sheet actually dated back to 1989 and contained numerous arrests. Included on this extended criminal background were arrests made for criminal mischief, car theft and trespassing.

The Vail resort is now trying to prove to the court that it did its due diligence or it faces a multimillion-dollar settlement. The case is yet another reminder of the dangers employers can face when they do not require enough on their employee screening process. As it happened, the employment background check that the resort ran on the instructor only looked back 5 years.

A professional employee screening company will work with a client to prevent a situation like this. In this case of the resort, it was apparent that a more extensive background check was necessary to get a full profile of the ski instructor. Don’t let this happen to your business, invest in a comprehensive employee screening service and reduce your risk.

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