Courts are now accepting the premise that some facts in an employee's background should disqualify them for a given position. A driver with a long history of recklessness behind the wheel, a salesperson with a background of violent assault, a bookkeeper with a record of theft, for example. If the employee causes a foreseeable injury to a third party, and the court determines that the employer's failure to detect or heed the warning signs was unreasonable, the company may well be held liable for damages. Since this risk cannot easily be quantified, employers are well advised to exercise the utmost care in the investigation and selection of all employees. Different states are proceeding down this path at varying rates of speed.
More protective states go much further.
The most restrictive states actually require that a worker cannot be dismissed without a showing of clear and just cause. The employer must document the reasons behind all dismissals to show that there was an adequate basis for the action. Careful pre-employment screening will reduce the risk of many wrongful discharge problems later. Explosive technological advances in the work-place increase the dangers of unqualified or unethical workers. With the increasing number of computer savvy employees, a company's information and intellectual property is at risk more than ever.