Specifications

Database-to-Source Verification

A national-database hit is a lead, not a fact — it is confirmed at the originating court before it can be reported.

What it ensures

Bulk databases are fast and incomplete: records get sealed, dismissed, or updated at the courthouse long before an aggregator catches up. This control treats a database hit as a pointer, not a result, and holds it out of the report until it is verified at the source.

It closes the gap between “a database says so” and “the court confirms it” — the gap where stale and misattributed records become reported ones.

Watch it run

A national database returns a possible criminal record on the applicant — and the agent is ready to report it.

Illustrative run — one case moving through the Database-to-Source Verification specification.

Database hit Source verified Reported Unverified
Permitted transition Forbidden move Start Terminal state
A national-database hit is a lead, not a fact. It is verified at the originating court before it can be reported. Reporting the raw hit is in red.
✕ Report hit 1 ✓ Database hit 2 ✓ Verified 3 ✓ Reported
Ready

A national database flags a possible criminal record on the applicant.

  1. Ready

    The hit

    A bulk database returns a record. Databases are fast — and famously stale.

  2. Blocked

    The wrong move

    The hit looks like an answer. But bulk data is often out of date — a case dismissed, sealed, or never the applicant’s. Reporting the unverified hit is refused.

    Where it comes from

    The §1681e(b) accuracy duty is why “database-only” reporting draws litigation: a record confirmed only against a bulk file is exactly the unverified information the duty targets.

    What it satisfies

    Refusing to report until the hit is confirmed at the originating court is what reasonable accuracy procedures require under §1681e(b); for public records it parallels the strict-procedures path of §1681k.

    FCRA §1681e(b) Statute 15 U.S.C. § 1681e(b) Whenever a consumer reporting agency prepares a consumer report it shall follow reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy of the information concerning the individual about whom the report relates. U.S. Code · Cornell LII ↗ FCRA §1681k(a) Statute 15 U.S.C. § 1681k(a) A consumer reporting agency which furnishes a consumer report for employment purposes and which for that purpose compiles and reports items of information on consumers which are matters of public record and are likely to have an adverse effect upon a consumer’s ability to obtain employment shall— (1) at the time such public record information is reported to the user of such consumer report, notify the consumer of the fact that public record information is being reported …; or (2) maintain strict procedures designed to insure that whenever public record information which is likely to have an adverse effect on a consumer’s ability to obtain employment is reported it is complete and up to date. U.S. Code · Cornell LII ↗
  3. Permitted

    Verified at source

    Someone pulls the underlying court record and confirms it. Now it’s a fact, not a flag.

  4. Permitted

    Reported

    Only the confirmed record reaches the report.

  5. On the record

    The proof

    The file shows the hit was confirmed at the court — not reported on the database alone.

Why it holds

Why the whole holds

No single database is the source of truth. What holds is that a bulk hit cannot become a reported record without confirmation at the court it came from. Reliability isn’t a better database; it’s that the raw hit can’t reach the page unverified.

Why it matters

“Database-only” reporting is a recurring §1681e(b) accuracy theory precisely because the underlying data is so often out of date. Verification at the source is the difference between a lead and a defensible report.