Michigan State Background Checks: FCRA, Fingerprints, Clean Slate

Michigan background check laws let employers run criminal history searches, but wrap several limits around them: misdemeanor arrests that never led to a conviction can’t be considered, third-party checks trigger federal notice duties under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, healthcare and school jobs require fingerprint-based screening, and Michigan’s Clean Slate Act now automatically wipes many older convictions from the record altogether. The rules below cover what employers can ask, what a Michigan check actually reveals, what you can do about mistakes, and what employers face when they cut corners.

What Employers Can and Can’t Ask About

The sharpest limit in Michigan law involves misdemeanor arrests without a conviction. Under the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, employers cannot ask about, keep records of, or use information about a misdemeanor arrest unless it resulted in a conviction.¹ Charges dropped, dismissed, or ending in acquittal are off-limits. The protection does not reach felony arrests or misdemeanor convictions, and it does not stop employers from running criminal checks generally. If a search surfaces a misdemeanor arrest with no conviction, that item cannot factor into hiring.

Credit history sits in a different place. Michigan has no state statute restricting employers from pulling credit reports for employment purposes, so an employer that follows the federal FCRA procedures can obtain one without meeting a state-law job-relatedness test, unless a local ordinance says otherwise.

Ban-the-box in Michigan applies only to state government hiring. Executive Directive 2018-4, in effect since October 2018, bars executive branch agencies from asking about criminal history on initial applications or in job postings, pushing the inquiry to later in the process so applicants get evaluated on qualifications first.² The directive carves out positions where state or federal law bars hiring people with certain histories. Private employers in Michigan are not covered by any statewide ban-the-box rule and can still ask about criminal history on the application itself, subject to the misdemeanor-arrest limit above.

One more boundary is worth naming, because job seekers often assume otherwise. Michigan’s Internet Privacy Protection Act stops an employer from demanding usernames or passwords to your personal internet accounts, and from retaliating if you refuse.³ The law does not cover accounts the employer pays for or that were provided as part of the job, and nothing prevents an employer from looking at whatever you’ve already made public. Your privacy runs to what’s behind the login, not what’s already visible.

What a Michigan Background Check Actually Shows

Two tools do most of the work. The Michigan State Police Internet Criminal History Access Tool, known as ICHAT, is the public name-based search of the state repository. It returns felonies and serious misdemeanors punishable by more than 93 days. It does not include federal records, tribal records, traffic offenses, juvenile records, local misdemeanors punishable by 93 days or fewer, or convictions from other states.⁴ Suppressed records and active warrants also don’t appear. Treat an ICHAT search as a starting point, not a full picture. Out-of-state and federal convictions require separate checks with those jurisdictions or the FBI.

Fingerprint-based checks go further. LiveScan digital fingerprints are submitted to the Michigan State Police and, for federal checks, forwarded to the FBI. Fingerprint checks match against broader databases and resolve identity problems that name searches miss, including common-name confusion.

A single ICHAT search costs $10. Government agencies and nonprofits running employment or volunteer checks through ICHAT are exempt from the fee. For fingerprint-based checks, the Michigan State Police may charge up to $30 to take and process prints and complete the record check, but not more than the actual cost of processing.⁵ Private LiveScan vendors typically add their own service fee on top. Both fee structures remain in effect through October 1, 2027 under current law.

Jobs With Mandatory Fingerprint Checks

Two sectors carry stricter requirements than the standard search.

Healthcare

Anyone working in a nursing home, home for the aged, hospice, hospital with swing-bed services, psychiatric hospital, or Medicare-certified home health agency must clear both a state and federal fingerprint-based criminal history check before starting.⁶ The requirement covers employees, independent contractors, and anyone granted clinical privileges who has direct access to patients, residents, or their personal information.⁷ Volunteers in most healthcare settings are exempt unless granted clinical privileges or working in certain hospice roles. Students are exempt unless granted clinical privileges.

Schools

Since July 2008, every person employed by or regularly working in a Michigan school, substitute teachers included, must be fingerprinted using LiveScan technology and submit to a criminal background check.⁸ The rule applies statewide.

What Employers Must Do Under the FCRA

Any Michigan employer using a third-party consumer reporting agency to run a background check has to follow the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act. There are three moments that matter.

Before ordering the report, give the applicant a written disclosure that you intend to obtain it. The disclosure must be a standalone document, not folded into the job application. The applicant then gives written authorization.⁹

If the report contains something that might cost the person the job, send a pre-adverse action notice before deciding. The notice must include a copy of the consumer report and a summary of the applicant’s FCRA rights, and the applicant needs time to review and dispute anything wrong.¹⁰

If you then decide not to hire based in whole or in part on the report, send a final adverse action notice. It has to identify the consumer reporting agency, state that the agency did not make the hiring decision, and inform the applicant of the right to dispute the report and get an additional free copy within 60 days.¹⁰ Skipping either notice is where employers most often pick up FCRA liability.

Fixing an Inaccurate Record

Errors on Michigan criminal records happen, and a wrong entry can cost you a job or a license. The path depends on where the error started.

An arrest reported in error goes back to the arresting law enforcement agency listed on that segment of the record. Incorrect charge information goes to the prosecuting attorney’s office. Court errors go to the court that entered the information. The reporting agency can update the record electronically, or contact the Michigan State Police Criminal Records Division for help.¹¹

Mistaken identity is a separate problem. If someone else’s conviction is showing up on your record because of a shared name, get fingerprinted at a local law enforcement agency and submit a record challenge to the Michigan State Police. The package should include your fingerprint card, a copy of the incorrect record, and a brief written explanation. Send it to the Michigan State Police Criminal Justice Information Center, P.O. Box 30634, Lansing, Michigan 48909-0634. If the prints confirm the record belongs to someone else, the State Police issue a clearance letter, typically in four to six weeks.

For errors on your FBI record, contact the agency that originally submitted the information. If that agency is a Michigan law enforcement entity other than a federal agency, the Michigan State Police Criminal Records Division can help at msp-crd-crimhelp@michigan.gov.¹¹

Automatic Expungement Under the Clean Slate Act

Michigan’s Clean Slate legislation, enacted in 2020, created an automatic expungement process that started running on April 11, 2023. The state criminal history database is checked daily for newly eligible convictions, and qualifying entries are removed without any application from you.¹²

Waiting periods depend on the offense:

Misdemeanors punishable by fewer than 93 days: eligible after 7 years from the date of sentencing, with no cap on the number expunged.
Misdemeanors punishable by 93 days or more: eligible after 7 years, with a limit of 4 convictions.
Felonies: eligible after 10 years from sentencing or completion of any prison term, whichever is later, with a limit of 2 convictions.¹²

Some convictions never qualify for automatic expungement: assaultive crimes when the person has more than one such conviction, serious misdemeanors, crimes of dishonesty, offenses punishable by 10 or more years in prison, offenses involving minors or vulnerable adults, crimes causing injury or death, and anything tied to human trafficking. Operating while intoxicated and certain commercial vehicle violations are also excluded. Once expunged, a record no longer appears on employer background checks. Michigan also allows expungement of certain marijuana-related misdemeanor convictions, and the Attorney General’s office publishes eligibility checklists for those.¹²

What Employers Face When They Get It Wrong

The FCRA sets statutory damages between $100 and $1,000 per violation for willful noncompliance, plus possible punitive damages. Negligent violations expose an employer to actual damages the applicant suffered. Either way, the applicant’s attorney’s fees may be on the employer.⁹

At the state level, the Michigan Consumer Protection Act reaches unfair or deceptive practices, and unauthorized or misleading background checks can fall within it; the Michigan Attorney General can enforce it. The Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act also creates civil liability where background check information is used in a way that discriminates based on a protected characteristic like race, sex, age, or religion.¹³ Using a non-conviction misdemeanor arrest as a reason to reject someone violates the Elliott-Larsen Act directly.¹

Systemic FCRA problems, like a non-compliant disclosure form used across many applicants, also draw class action lawsuits. Those settlements can run well past the per-violation statutory range.

1
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 37.2205a – Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (Excerpt)
2
State of Michigan. Executive Directive 2018-4 – Use of Criminal History in State Employment Screening
3
Michigan Legislature. Internet Privacy Protection Act (Act 478 of 2012)
4
State of Michigan. Criminal History Records
5
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 28.273 – Fingerprinting and Criminal Record Check Fee
6
State of Michigan. Workforce Background Check
7
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code 333.21313 – Home for the Aged Background Checks
8
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 380.1230a – School Employee Background Checks
9
Federal Trade Commission. Background Checks on Prospective Employees: Keep Required Disclosures Simple
10
Federal Trade Commission. Using Consumer Reports: What Employers Need to Know
11
Michigan State Police. Search, Expunge, Modify, or Update Criminal History Records
12
Michigan Department of Attorney General. Automatic Expungements: Michigan Clean Slate
13
Cornell Law School. Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (Michigan, as Amended)