Resume Lies Lead to Serious Injury in Dallas

May 2nd was a tragic day in Dallas, TX. The practice facility used by the Dallas Cowboys collapsed seriously injuring two players. One was left with a broken neck and the other with permanent paralysis.

The director of engineering on the project, Jeffery Lawerence Galland runs his own consulting firm but works with the firm, JCI who oversaw the construction of the facility in 2003 and the reinforcement that led to the collapse.

Galland falsified his educational creditionals on his resume. In a written summary, Galland states that he received a bachelors degree from Eastern Washington University. A education verification confirmed that he did attend the university, but did not receive the stated degree.

Galland also served federal prison time for drug trafficking.

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Highlight on Healthcare Background Checks: Avoid Negligent Hiring Suits

The best protection against negligent hiring lawsuits is a policy of due diligence on each applicant that approaches your company. The healthcare industry is particularly vulnerable to negligent hiring lawsuits because they are held liable for any illegal act conducted by their employees. Managers and supervisors can even be held personally responsible for the acts of those they manage and supervise.

If an individual in a healthcare facility is injured physically or financially by the criminal, violent, or negligent acts of an employee they may legally pursue a negligent hiring lawsuit against the employer. Punitive damages from such a lawsuit can range well into a six-figure settlement. Negligent hiring suits that are successful demonstrate:

• An employment relationship existed at the time of injury
  
• As a result of the relationship, the employee and the injured party met
  
• Both parties had a right to be where they were at the time of injury
  
• The employee was unfit or incompetent and posed a reasonable risk to the public
  
• The employer knew or should have known the employee was unfit
  
• The employee caused injury
  
• The employer’s negligence in hiring was the proximate cause of injury
  

 

Utilizing background checks is one way to prevent negligent hiring from happening in the first place. A recent survey by SHRM (the Society for Human Resource Management) indicates that 53% of job applications contained false information and 10% conceal criminal history.

At minimum, conducting a criminal background
check in all counties in which an applicant has lived for at least the last seven years. Verifying licensure, employment and education are extremely valuable in the wake of public reports of education fraud on resumes.

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Bogus Diplomas, Fake Institutions

Diploma mills have popped up all over the internet and their prevalence is becoming more widely known. But just like loopholes in drug testing, diploma mills have become better and better at going undetected to even the most astute eye.

Alan Contreras of the Oregon Office of Degree Authorization estimates there are nearly 700 diploma mill companies or organizations that operate in the US and nearly 3,000 worldwide. "All these degree mills issue thousands of bogus degrees every year...so there are tens of thousands of people out there who are using bogus degrees." (HR Magazine, Sept, 08).

It is important for employers to understand that even the most polished looking credentials can be fraudulent, and that there are tools available to detect them. Liberty uses clues to help spot questionable credentials on resume or application, including spotting out-of-sequence degrees, degrees earned in a short period of time, and the sneaky trick of institutions that sound like the real deal using a similar name the well-known variety.

Hiring the wrong person with the wrong credentials for a job can be very costly and time consuming so it's important not to gloss over the steps needed to take a candidate seriously, and that includes verifying their education claims with a tooth-comb and ensuring the institution is legitimate.

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