What Is the Difference Between a Misdemeanor and a Felony

Whether you are an employer running a background check for a prospective hire or a job seeker wondering how a run-in with the law will impact your hiring chances, you need to know the difference between a misdemeanor and a felony. We review the basic differences between these two criminal offenses and explore what constitutes a simple infraction.

Do Traffic Tickets Show on Criminal Background Checks?

When filling out a job application, you may be asked to disclose prior criminal history. If you end up getting hired for the job, you will also almost surely have to go through a criminal background check before you start work. If you have a series of speeding tickets or other traffic violations, do you need to disclose them as criminal history or be worried about them coming up on your criminal background check?

Do Criminal Background Checks Show Dismissed Charges?

Charged but Not Convicted: Do Dismissed Charges Appear on Criminal Background Checks? Criminal background checks contain much more nuance than most employers expect when they first begin creating their vetting processes. Most people think of a background check in a binary way: they either show a clean record or a checkered past that involves one or more criminal convictions. While it is true that arrests alone do not usually appear in background reports, that does not mean all criminal records exclude non-conviction information. As a result, employers need to understand the other data they might see—and what it means for the hiring process.