Tenant screening thirty years later: A statutory proposal to protect public records

Most consumers learn about tenant-screening reports only when a landlord points to an item on such a report as the reason for rejecting an application and provides the tenant with a copy of that report as required by law. Legal scholars have criticized these reports for more than thirty years, however, observing that they are prone to error, open to abuse, and generally contrary to established public policies. This Note examines existing mechanisms used to regulate these reports and finds them inadequate, endorsing instead one state's approach of "choking" information flows by disclosing eviction records only when the landlord prevails in court. In a digital age in which personal information is easily aggregated, court records should not be a vehicle for automatic damage to an individual's renting prospects and reputation.