update: nanny's "court date"

heybabe

As some of you suggested, I casually brought it up and asked if everything is ok and if it's anything she needs help on. She looked kind of sheepish/uncomfy and just said, "No, it's nothing big. Just something I should have dealt with, but didn't, so I'm having to deal with it now." I definitely was not comfortable asking more questions about it. So I'm still not sure exactly what it is, but I trust her enough to take her word that it is something small. I'm thinking maybe either a parking or traffic ticket she didn't take care of?? There's a little part of me that worries a tad about her level of responsibility if she failed to take care of a ticket, but we're all human and make mistakes. And I know that before we hired her she was in a bit of a financial pickle... 

I paid for (an admittedly cheapy) online background check before we hired her (~4 months ago) - shouldn't an oustanding traffic or whatever ticket have shown up? Not that I think that would have made a difference whether we hired her or not, but now I'm just questioning how accurate those are.

Thanks for everyone's advice & input!

amyliisa

heybabe:

I paid for (an admittedly cheapy) online background check before we hired her (~4 months ago) - shouldn't an oustanding traffic or whatever ticket have shown up? Not that I think that would have made a difference whether we hired her or not, but now I'm just questioning how accurate those are.

I've never paid for a background check online but I doubt an outstanding ticket would show up. When we run criminal history checks at work, outstanding traffic tickets/traffic warrants don't show up, even for us, unless we call the specific agency where we think they may have something outstanding (Austin PD, etc...). Glad it sounds like it's not too big a deal, and like you said - we all make mistakes... ETA: when we run them for work, we run the criminal history check through DPS, which is the official recording agency for anytime anyone's been arrested, and convicted or acquitted, for any Class B misdemeanors or higher. Traffic tickets are Class C msdemeanors, so they don't get reported to DPS.

KateAggie

It could be related to something financial, like a collection or bounced check.  Even really great people can get overwhelmed by financial mistakes, and they snowball so quickly. 

It sounds like she's a great nanny, and I think it speaks volumes that she was open about having a court date, evn if she doesn't want to get very specific.

heybabe

amyliisa:

When we run criminal history checks at work, outstanding traffic tickets/traffic warrants don't show up, even for us, unless we call the specific agency where we think they may have something outstanding (Austin PD, etc...). Glad it sounds like it's not too big a deal, and like you said - we all make mistakes... ETA: when we run them for work, we run the criminal history check through DPS, which is the official recording agency for anytime anyone's been arrested, and convicted or acquitted, for any Class B misdemeanors or higher. Traffic tickets are Class C msdemeanors, so they don't get reported to DPS.

Ah, gotcha. So, smaller stuff (Class C) doesn't show up, but anything recorded at DPS (Class B or higher) does. Makes sense. Thanks!

libbyann

Speaking from experience, it's not that hard to forget about a ticket and then have an "oh $hit" moment when you realize that you've now got to go to court to pay it.

I agree with KA - it speaks very well of her that she's being honest about why she has to leave work early.

ssinca

glad to hear everything has (sort of) worked out!

risa_4-11-09

If you go to apd's website you can search for active warrants ...just FYI

amycathy

risa_4-11-09:

If you go to apd's website you can search for active warrants ...just FYI

Okay so I am inquisitive and looked, all you have to put in is date of birth not even a name.

 

agran

traffic tickets and class C warrants never show up on background checks.  Has to be a class B misdemeanor or above.  And if she had something pending that was B or higher it would probably would have popped up on your check... even if she wasn't convicted yet.