GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Background checks are being delayed as Michigan’s new Clean Slate Law creates a backlog for courts.
Rob Lnenicka, a Jenison business owner, is one of the West Michigan workers losing out on a paycheck as a result. Lnenicka runs a computer repair shop, Adaptive PC Solutions, next door to the Jenison Meijer off Baldwin Street. For the last year, he has driven for Uber and Lyft on the side to help pay the bills.
“Turns out, I really like it,” he said. “It's a lot of fun. I'm a little bit of a hermit, so it gets me out of the house, gets me doing stuff, keeps me busy.”
That ended last month when he checked the Uber app and found out he couldn't give rides anymore. A few weeks later, he was taken off Lyft, too. Since he can’t drive for ride-sharing services, he says he’s missing out on $2,000 to $3,000 a month.
“I’m not going to lie, it’s painful,” he said. “I've got to now figure out how to come up with that extra income somehow. It’s fairly devastating.”
Every year, Uber and Lyft automatically do background checks through a third-party company called Checkr. This time, Lnenicka’s background check wasn't going through with little explanation as to why.
“It's terrible, it really is,” he said. “It's causing me a lot of stress and sleepless nights, I'm not going to lie.”
Lnenicka is not alone. Many across the state are waiting on background checks because of the Clean Slate Law, which expunged criminal records for thousands of ex-offenders who have remained crime-free for several years. The goal was to remove barriers to employment, housing and education opportunities.
Since the law went into effect on April 11, several courts, including in Kent County, have blocked the public from searching for court records online. The website for 61st District Court in downtown Grand Rapids still indicates that, stating public record searches were disabled on April 10.
“For those who utilize our public site regularly for employment background check purposes, we acknowledge the inconvenience this may cause, and appreciate your understanding and patience during this time,” the website reads.
Checkr says that's preventing it from doing background checks for Lnenicka and many others.
“In response to Michigan's Clean Slate Law, the Antrim, Kent, Leelanau, and St. Joseph courts have removed all information from the Public Access Terminal and are not performing any searches at this time,” Checkr says on its website. “The remaining counties are operational but with varying constraints. There is no ETA for when these courts will fully restore their systems. Please anticipate considerable delays in all Michigan counties.”
The 61st District Court confirmed to Target 8 that public record searches have been down to make sure no private information is disclosed by accident as staff continue to review sealing thousands of old cases.
“Our court handles a high volume of cases, with thousands currently being reviewed for sealing,” a court clerk said. “This is a substantial task, but we are fully committed to fulfilling our legal obligations. Although this situation presents a significant workload for our staff, they are managing the challenge professionally and efficiently. We receive hundreds of requests for individual name searches daily, and our team is committed to processing them as timely as possible.”
The clerk said while the court redesign its public search system, record requests are being processed through staff in the clerk’s office.
“While we don’t currently have a fixed ETA, we hope to have the public search option available soon,” the clerk added.
The clerk said the court does not have any unanswered requests for records from Checkr.
Checkr said it has no timeline for when courts will go back to normal, so Lnenicka still has no clue when his background check will go through.
“That's kind of the crux of this — there's nothing I can do,” Lnenicka said. “It's all out of my control. There's nothing that I did. There's literally nothing I can do to help myself here because they do it automatically. They submitted it back in May and it's still pending.”
Other Kent County residents have taken to Reddit, saying the same thing is happening to them.
“Checkr continues to blame the Clean Slate Law for ongoing delays,” one user wrote earlier this month. “We are now going on nearly two months delay for mine.”
“I’ve had to push back one of my new employees start dates three times now because of background check delays,” another user wrote.
Some users said their background check requests were eventually filled but only after being delayed multiple times.
Lnenicka said his friends are still waiting, as well.
“I have a bunch of friends who also do Uber and at least two of them now are not able to work because of this,” he said.
Lnenicka hopes his story will “light a fire under somebody to get the process rolling.”
“I'm not looking for a handout or a freebie anything like that," he said. "All I want is to be able to work.”