This is what California Governor, Jerry Brown, believes as law AB 2770 goes into effect.

Even before this, lawyers in the #MeToo era have been advising employers to use reference checking services to uncover sexual harassers.  Some organizations were wary of this, as they did not want to be accused of defamation. However, we acknowledge that the risk of performing reference checks is very limited:

“While the fear (and fear of the expense) of being sued is enough to chill employers into keeping their mouths shut, and consequently perpetuating a cycle of harassment or other bad behavior, the reality is there are very few published cases on this in California, leading me to believe that while the risk is real, this isn’t likely to be a money-maker for the plaintiff’s bar.”

With AB 2770 just signed today, employers are even more protected and it could be finally a way to stop offenders to move from one organization to the other without problem.