What does a "Clear" verdict on Groundcheck mean?

Groundcheck (earthmove.io/trust) returns one of five verdicts on every report: Clear, Conditional, Caution, Critical, or Unverifiable. Clear is the top tier and indicates the contractor's public records match a normal, clean operation.

For a contractor to receive a Clear verdict, the following must all hold:

1. State licensing board: license is Active, in the right trade class, with no open disciplinary action and no recent citation history. Bond and workers' compensation are current.

2. Secretary of State: legal entity exists, is in Good Standing or Active status, formation date is more than 24 months ago (or 12 months if no other red flags), and there is no cluster of dissolved prior entities at the same address.

3. Court records: no open mechanics' liens filed against the contractor, no breach-of-contract judgments in the last 3 years, no Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the last 24 months, no federal tax liens, and no judgments suggesting non-payment of subcontractors or suppliers.

4. OSHA: no Willful citations, fewer than 3 Serious citations in the last 5 years, all citations have been abated (the violation was fixed).

5. BBB: no recurring complaint pattern, complaints are responded to, and accreditation status (if any) is current.

6. Phoenix detection: no multi-entity address clustering, no dissolved-and-reformed pattern, no shared-officer cross-entity history.

7. Cross-reference: business name on license matches Secretary of State entity, qualifier name matches consistently, and address records are consistent.

What Clear does NOT guarantee:

- Insurance is in force. Groundcheck does not verify insurance certificates. Call the insurer directly. - References are positive. Groundcheck does not contact references. Call them yourself. - Pricing is competitive. Groundcheck does not check bids. - The contractor is technically skilled for your specific project. Skill is observed from prior work and references, not public records. - The contractor will not fail in the future. Clear is point-in-time; new evidence can surface tomorrow.

How to use a Clear verdict:

- Treat as a green light to proceed with the rest of due diligence: insurance verification, reference checks, permit history review, contract negotiation. - Do not skip the rest of due diligence because Clear came back clean. Clear is necessary but not sufficient. - Enable Groundcheck monitoring (Deep Dive or Pro tier) so you are alerted if new evidence surfaces during the project.

What changes a Clear into Conditional or Caution:

- A single mechanics' lien older than 2 years that was paid and released: usually Conditional. - One Serious OSHA citation: Conditional. - A BBB pattern of unresolved complaints with no formal regulatory issues: Conditional or Caution. - A licensing board complaint that resulted in a warning but not a citation: Conditional.

Clear is the most common verdict for established, mid-sized contractors with multi-year track records. Newly formed contractors (entity less than 12 months) cannot receive Clear because there is not enough history to evaluate; they receive Conditional with a note about insufficient history.