CT · state guide

Connecticut background screening law

How the courts here are organized

Connecticut has one trial court. The Superior Court is the court of general jurisdiction for all matters, criminal and civil alike, and there is no separate trial court of limited criminal jurisdiction sitting below it on the criminal side. That single fact decides how a Connecticut search is scoped: there is no municipal court layer to miss and no county court to route to, because the structure is not built on counties at all.

The state's eight counties (Fairfield, Hartford, Litchfield, Middlesex, New Haven, New London, Tolland and Windham) have been geographic entities only since county government was abolished. They are not court divisions and they do not hold records. The Superior Court is organized instead into 13 judicial districts and 19 Geographical Area courts. The judicial districts are Ansonia-Milford, Bridgeport, Danbury, Hartford, Litchfield, Middlesex, New Britain, New Haven-Meriden, New London-Norwich, Stamford-Norwalk, Tolland, Waterbury and Windham. The Geographical Area courts run from G.A. 1 at Stamford to G.A. 23 at New Haven, and the numbering skips 6, 8, 16 and 17, which no longer exist.

The practical consequence is that a Connecticut docket number is court-location coded rather than county coded, and instructions that tell a reader to search the county court are wrong here. The free Criminal and Motor Vehicle Case Look-up accepts a defendant name or a docket number, and it also publishes a daily docket by court and by defendant, pending cases, arrest warrants, the sentence review docket, motions to seal or close, and an attorney search by juris number. Court locations are read by Geographical Area or by judicial district, never by county.

The free case look-up carries a display limit that is easy to mistake for a lookback rule. Its own notice states that conviction information is generally shown for no more than ten years after the date of sentencing "unless Section 7-13 of the Connecticut Practice Book provides for a shorter period of time in which case this information will be shown for the shorter period of time", and that conviction information is removed from the website one month before the end of whichever period applies. Because of that early removal, a search of this source cannot see the whole ten years. The limit is a Practice Book rule about what the website displays, not a statutory restriction on what may be reported.

The site also publishes what it does not show, in its own words: convictions resulting from unvacated forfeitures of bail or collateral in non-motor vehicle cases are not shown, youthful offender cases and juvenile cases are not shown, and infraction and violation convictions are not shown. It adds that the information "may change daily due to erasures, corrections, pardons, and other modifications" and that the Judicial Branch "cannot guarantee the accuracy of the information except with respect to this date". A case-file copy is a different product from the website entry, requested from the Superior Court Records Center with the case name and docket number and normally available within one or two business days.

The authoritative record for a Connecticut criminal matter is therefore the Superior Court file, held under a docket number that encodes a court location, and the state repository is a separate fingerprint-based product reached from the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection. The two answer different questions and neither is a substitute for the other.

Connecticut's repository is not name-based, and that is the first limit a screening product meets here. Conn. Gen. Stat. 29-17a provides that where a criminal history records check is required, "such check shall be requested from the State Police Bureau of Identification and shall be applicable to the individual identified in the request", and the requesting party must "arrange for the fingerprinting of the individual or for conducting any other method of positive identification required by the State Police Bureau of Identification". A national check, where one is requested, is run through the Federal Bureau of Investigation on the same footing. A name-based product is therefore not a substitute for the Connecticut state check, because the state check is built to be tied to a person rather than to a name.

The Judicial Branch does not hold the criminal history at all, and it says so. Its own records page states that "requests for criminal record checks, criminal histories and letters of good conduct must be made to the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection". What the Judicial Branch publishes is the case look-up and the case file, which is a court-record product, and a repository product is a different thing obtained from a different agency under a different statute.

The second limit is the one that moves under a search. The statutory erasure scheme at Conn. Gen. Stat. 54-142a removes records by operation of law, and the case look-up's own notice says the information shown "may change daily due to erasures, corrections, pardons, and other modifications". So the same docket can return different content on two dates without any error having occurred, and a report produced on one date can be stale on another. Where a report includes criminal matters of public record, 31-51i(i)(2)(B) requires the agency to maintain procedures designed to ensure that what it reports is complete and up to date as of the date of issue, conforming at a minimum to Conn. Gen. Stat. 54-142e. That is a duty with a date on it.

The third limit is the display rule, and it is not a statutory lookback. The ten-year limit on the case look-up comes from Practice Book section 7-13 and is a website display rule, and the site removes a conviction a month before the end of whichever period applies. A product that reads the look-up and reports what it sees is reporting a subset of what the court file contains, and the difference widens at the older end. Nothing in the Practice Book limit restricts what may be reported from the file, and nothing in the erasure statute sets a screening lookback either: erasure removes the record rather than capping its age.

The fourth limit is what erasure does and does not reach, which decides how much of a Connecticut history a search can find. Section 54-142a(a) erases records of a finding of not guilty and of dismissed charges, and (c) erases nolled charges after thirteen months. Subsection (e) erases convictions on the seven and ten year clocks. Subdivision (e)(2) excludes from erasure any conviction designated a family violence crime on or after 1 January 2000, any nonviolent sexual offense or sexually violent offense as defined in section 54-250, a list of named sections, and a second operating-under-the-influence conviction within ten years of the first. So the offenses most likely to matter to an employer are the ones that stay.

The fifth limit sits on the employer rather than the source. Section 31-51i(c) bars an employer or its agent from requiring an employee or prospective employee to disclose the existence of erased criminal history record information, and (e) and (f) bar denying employment or discharging solely on the basis of erased information or of a provisional pardon or certificate of rehabilitation. "Erased" is defined at 46a-80a(4) to reach erasure under 54-142a or 54-76o, youthful offender information under 46b-146, and criminal case continuances more than thirteen months old. A report that discloses a youthful offender adjudication or a stale continuance is disclosing something the employer may not ask for.

The federal baseline

Federal law sets the floor here as it does everywhere. It is at 15 U.S.C. §1681 et seq., it binds the agency and the employer separately, and it does not vary by state. The FCRA article covers it section by section, including the seven-year limits, the salary threshold and the adverse action sequence, so that this page does not restate any of it.

What follows is only the overlay: what Connecticut adds on top of that floor, and where it departs from it.

What Connecticut law adds

Reporting limits at a glance

Every figure below is against Connecticut law. Where a row says “federal only”, the state has set nothing and 15 U.S.C. §1681c governs.

Adverse action here

The federal sequence applies unchanged: pre-adverse action notice with a copy of the report and the summary of rights, a reasonable opportunity to dispute, then the adverse action notice with the agency’s details and a dispute route. The FCRA article sets it out in full.

Connecticut adds a notice that is owed before any of that, and it is owed by the agency rather than the employer. Section 31-51i(i)(2)(A) requires the consumer reporting agency, at the time it issues a report containing criminal matters of public record to anyone other than the consumer, to tell the consumer that it is reporting those matters and to give the name and address of the person receiving the report. A process that treats this as satisfied by the later adverse-action notice has the timing wrong, because the state duty fires at delivery.

The state's own written-rejection rule applies to the state and its agencies rather than to private employers. Section 46a-80(d) provides that where conviction information is used as a basis for rejection, "such rejection shall be in writing and specifically state the evidence presented and reasons for rejection", and that a copy shall be sent by registered mail to the applicant. It is a public-sector provision and it is a useful model, but it is not a duty on a private employer, and a letter that cites it as one is citing the wrong party.

The category of record an employer may not act on is wider than a conviction. Under 31-51i(e) and (f), an employer may not deny employment or discharge solely on the basis of erased criminal history record information or of a prior conviction for which the person holds a provisional pardon or a certificate of rehabilitation. Erased information reaches youthful offender adjudications and criminal case continuances more than thirteen months old, so an adverse-action letter should be able to say that the record it relied on was none of those.

Two pre-decision duties sit on the application form rather than on the letter. Section 31-51i(b) bars the criminal history inquiry on an initial application, and (d) requires any application form that asks about criminal history to carry a clear and conspicuous notice that the applicant need not disclose erased information, what erased information consists of, and that a person with erased information is deemed never to have been arrested as to the erased proceedings and may so swear under oath. Subsection (g) restricts who inside the company may see the criminal history portion of the form.

The completeness of what the letter relies on is itself a duty with a date. Section 31-51i(i)(2)(B) requires the agency to keep procedures ensuring that reported criminal matters of public record are complete and up to date as of the date of issue, conforming at a minimum to Conn. Gen. Stat. 54-142e, and the Judicial Branch's own notice warns that its case information may change daily through erasures, corrections and pardons. A Connecticut report is a statement about a date, and the dispute route should be able to reach a record that has since been erased.

Screening in Connecticut: what your process needs

• Give the consumer notice at the time the report issues, not on adverse action. Section 31-51i(i)(2)(A) requires an agency issuing an employment-purpose report containing criminal matters of public record to tell the consumer it is doing so and to give the name and address of the recipient.
• Treat arrests and indictments as inside the notice duty. Section 31-51i(i)(1)(C) defines criminal matters of public record to include arrests and indictments as well as convictions, so a report carrying a pending charge with no disposition is within the subsection.
• Keep the completeness procedures dated. Section 31-51i(i)(2)(B) requires procedures ensuring the reported information is complete and up to date as of the date of issue, conforming at a minimum to Conn. Gen. Stat. 54-142e.
• Do not require an applicant to disclose erased criminal history record information. Section 31-51i(c) bars an employer or its agent from requiring it, and 46a-80a(4) defines erased information to include youthful offender adjudications and criminal case continuances more than thirteen months old.
• Put the notice on the application form if the form asks about criminal history. Section 31-51i(d) requires clear and conspicuous language covering the non-disclosure right, what erased information consists of, and the fact that a person with erased information is deemed never to have been arrested as to those proceedings and may so swear under oath.
• Do not deny employment or discharge solely on the basis of erased information or of a provisional pardon or certificate of rehabilitation. Sections 31-51i(e) and (f) bar it, and a provisional pardon under 54-130e or a certificate of rehabilitation under 54-108f or 54-130e carries a presumption of rehabilitation at 46a-80(c).
• Ask the criminal history question at the right stage. Section 31-51i(b) bars inquiry about prior arrests, criminal charges or convictions on an initial employment application, with exceptions only where an applicable state or federal law requires the inquiry or where a security or fidelity bond or equivalent is required for the position.
• Do not assume a size threshold. Section 46a-80a(3) reaches an employer with one or more employees, including the state and all political subdivisions, and 31-51i(a) takes its employer definition from that section.
• Do not cite the five-factor test for 46a-80. The section sets three factors at subsection (c): the nature of the crime and its relationship to the job, the degree of rehabilitation, and the time elapsed since conviction or release. The words "direct relationship" do not appear, and the provision binds the state and its agencies rather than private employers.
• Do not cite 31-48d for social media screening. Section 31-48d is the electronic monitoring statute and requires prior written notice to employees of the types of monitoring that may occur. The social media statute is 31-40x.
• Apply the credit test as written. Section 31-51tt requires the credit information to be substantially related to the job, and the definition is a five-prong list. Connecticut has no employment-purpose mini-Fair Credit Reporting Act: 36a-695(3) scopes the state credit reporting act to credit eligibility for personal, family or household purposes.
• Write the cannabis policy before relying on it. The protection at 21a-422p(b)(2) is switched off by an employment action taken under a policy meeting 21a-422p(b)(1), which must be in writing, made available to each employee before it takes effect, and offered to each prospective employee at the time of an offer or conditional offer. Check the exempt industry list at 21a-422o(3) and the drug testing carve-outs at 21a-422s.
• Read the erasure clocks from the most recent judgment of conviction, and check the start gate. Section 54-142a(e)(1)(A) runs seven years for misdemeanors and ten for class D and E felonies and certain motor vehicle offenses, and (e)(3) stops the clock until incarceration, parole, probation and transitional supervision are complete and no state criminal charge is pending.
• Keep erasure and the website display limit apart. The ten-year limit on the Judicial Branch case look-up comes from Practice Book section 7-13, which is a display rule, and the site removes a conviction one month early. The statutory erasure scheme is a different mechanism operating on a different clock.
• Do not search a county court, because there is not one. Connecticut has a single Superior Court across 13 judicial districts and 19 Geographical Area courts, its eight counties are geographic entities only, and its docket numbers are court-location coded. Use the Criminal and Motor Vehicle Case Look-up by defendant name or docket number.
• Recognize that a name-based product is not the Connecticut repository. Conn. Gen. Stat. 29-17a requires the state check to be requested from the State Police Bureau of Identification and to apply to the individual identified, with fingerprinting or another positive identification method arranged by the requesting party.
• Keep the two AI acts apart in any policy you write. P.A. 26-15 sections 7 to 12 regulate automated employment-related decision technology and bind deployers, with duties from 1 October 2027 and Attorney General enforcement only. P.A. 23-16 is a state-agency inventory and assessment law that regulates no employer. Section 13 of P.A. 26-15 takes effect 1 October 2026 and removes the use of such technology as a defense to a discrimination complaint.
• Ask before you assume on salary and salary history. Neither was researched for this page, and the page states no threshold and no prohibition rather than printing a negative.

Related states

• Massachusetts. Massachusetts holds its criminal disposition file with the Commissioner of Probation rather than with the courts that produced it, and releases it only through a registration that expires every two calendar years and requires retraining. Its regulation also writes the federal $75,000 employment figure into state law, so how much record a provider may pass to an employer turns on the salary of the job.
• New York. New York sets its salary threshold at $25,000, so the seven-year limit reaches jobs federal law exempts, and its bar on reporting arrests has no time limit attached to it.
• Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania limits how a conviction may be used rather than whether it may be asked about: 18 Pa.C.S. § 9125 lets an employer consider a felony or a misdemeanor conviction only to the extent it relates to the applicant’s suitability for the position applied for, and requires a written notice when a decision not to hire rests in whole or in part on criminal history record information, which the Third Circuit read in January 2026 to reach a conviction the applicant volunteered. The State Police repository answers against Pennsylvania law enforcement records only and never federal ones, a Pennsylvania court docket sits outside the state criminal history statute altogether, and the docket number that identifies a case carries a county code where a judicial district number would be expected. Philadelphia then bans the inquiry, reaching research conducted for an employer by a third party, and sets a seven-year felony and four-year misdemeanor window measured from the underlying arrest or release from incarceration, whichever is later, with ten business days to answer a provisional decision.

What we do

Connecticut is the state where the screening agency has its own statutory duty, and where the AI law is not the one usually cited. Conn. Gen. Stat. 31-51i(i) requires a consumer reporting agency issuing an employment report containing criminal matters of public record to notify the consumer at the time the report is issued, naming the person who received it, and to keep completeness procedures conforming to Conn. Gen. Stat. 54-142e. The employer side runs on an application-stage bar at 31-51i(b) that reaches an employer with one employee, on erasure clocks at 54-142a(e) that run seven years for misdemeanors and ten for class D and E felonies from the most recent judgment of conviction, and on credit checks restricted to a five-prong substantially-related test at 31-51tt. P.A. 26-15 sections 7 to 12 regulate automated employment-related decision technology, with deployer duties from 1 October 2027 enforced only by the Attorney General, and section 13 removes the use of that technology as a defense to a discrimination complaint from 1 October 2026. One Superior Court hears every criminal case, there are no county courts, and the free case look-up stops showing a conviction ten years after sentencing while removing it a month early. Our Connecticut work sends the consumer notice at delivery rather than at rejection, states which court location and docket produced the record, and keeps erasure apart from the website display limit. If your current vendor calls the ten-year look-up limit a state lookback rule, or cites P.A. 23-16 as the employment AI law, this is where that costs you.

Sources

• Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-51i, employer inquiries about erased criminal record, duties of a consumer reporting agency, and complaints, read live from CGA chapter 557
• Conn. Gen. Stat. § 46a-80, denial of employment based on conviction information, read live from CGA chapter 814c
• Conn. Gen. Stat. § 46a-80a, definitions including employer and erased criminal history record information, read live from CGA chapter 814c
• Conn. Gen. Stat. § 54-142a, erasure of criminal records, read live from CGA chapter 961a
• Conn. Gen. Stat. §§ 21a-422o to 21a-422s, cannabis employer provisions, read live from CGA chapter 420h
• Conn. Gen. Stat. §§ 36a-695 to 36a-699e, the state credit reporting act, read live from CGA chapter 669
• Conn. Gen. Stat. § 29-17a, criminal history records checks, procedure and fees, read live from CGA chapter 529
• P.A. 23-16, Substitute Senate Bill No. 1103, An Act Concerning Artificial Intelligence, Automated Decision-Making and Personal Data Privacy, read as the General Assembly's published public act text
• P.A. 26-15, Substitute Senate Bill No. 5, An Act Concerning Online Safety, sections 7 to 12 (automated employment-related decision technology) and section 13 (amending § 46a-60(b)(1)), read as the General Assembly's published public act text
• Judicial Branch, Criminal and Motor Vehicle Case Look-up, including the ten-year display notice citing Practice Book section 7-13
• Judicial Branch, How to Obtain Court Records, the Superior Court Records Center route and the redirect of criminal record checks to DESPP
• Judicial Branch staff listings for the 13 judicial districts and the 19 Geographical Area courts
• Route note: the General Statutes were read from the General Assembly's own chapter pages at cga.ct.gov, which returned intermittent 403s and required retries on every chapter used. Public act texts were read from the same host. Judicial Branch pages at jud.ct.gov served the court structure, the case look-up display notice and the records route. Two hosts failed in ways worth recording: portal.ct.gov timed out, and ct.gov/despp returned HTTP 200 with a 239-byte stub reading "The URL is invalid or the pointer does not exist", a soft 404 served with a success status, so the DESPP repository is documented from Conn. Gen. Stat. 29-17a and the Judicial Branch redirect rather than from DESPP itself. CourtListener returned HTTP 202 with a bot-challenge body on every opinion page and 401 then 403 from its REST API, so no case law is cited.

Last reviewed 23 September 2026. This page is checked on a quarterly cycle, because state screening law changes every legislative session. Nothing here is legal advice; see the terms of use.