Specifications

Source Coverage

A report isn’t finished until every source the client agreed to has actually been searched.

What it ensures

When a client defines the scope of a search — these counties, these databases, federal records — a complete report means all of them were queried, not a representative sample. This control holds the report open until the agreed set is covered.

The failure it removes runs opposite to most FCRA risk: not a wrong record reported, but a real one missed. An agency’s coverage posture should be a decision it made, not an accident of where the search happened to stop.

Watch it run

A screening order names the sources to search — and the agent is assembling the report.

Illustrative run — one case moving through the Source Coverage specification.

Assembling Coverage verified Complete Incomplete
Permitted transition Forbidden move Start Terminal state
A report isn’t complete until every agreed source has been queried. The miss — finalizing with a source unchecked — is the failure no consumer sees and the client always feels. The shortcut is in red.
✕ refused 1 ✓ Order 2 ✓ Sources 3 ✓ Report
Ready

A screening order specifies the sources to search — county, state, federal, the agreed scope.

  1. Ready

    The order

    The client’s scope names the sources. A complete report means all of them — not most of them.

  2. Blocked

    The miss

    This failure runs opposite to most FCRA risk: not a wrong record reported, but a real one missed. The report cannot finalize until the agreed source set is fully queried.

    Where it comes from

    Accuracy in screening is bidirectional. A missed record harms the client and its negligent-hiring exposure — even though the consumer has no FCRA claim for the omission. Where an agency sets that dial is a decision it should make on purpose.

    What it satisfies

    Holding completion until every agreed source is queried is the completeness side of the §1681e(b) accuracy duty, and the scope the client contracted for.

    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 ↗
  3. Permitted

    Full coverage

    County, state, federal — whatever the scope named — each is actually run, not assumed clear.

  4. Permitted

    Complete

    Only now is it a finished report: nothing in scope went unchecked.

  5. On the record

    The proof

    The file shows exactly which sources were run — the answer to “was anything missed?”

Why it holds

Why the whole holds

No single query makes a report complete. Completeness is that the report cannot close while any agreed source is unqueried. Reliability isn’t a thorough analyst; it’s that an incomplete search has no path to “done.”

Why it matters

The missed record is the false-negative axis of accuracy. The consumer has no FCRA claim for it — but the client does, in contract and in its own negligent-hiring liability, which flows back to the agency.