Why Search Public Records

People search public records because they need the more information to choose employees, tenants, or otherwise make decisions using information provided by public records. For example, corporations can need information available from public records to validate a businessperson's credentials or gain a competitive edge in the marketplace. Others might need information from public records that will allow them to assess a potential business partner's reputation, find assets, identify ownership, understand affiliations or relationships, discover activity in a certain field or geographic area, determine consumer reaction to products or services, uncover evidence of legal problems, or otherwise conduct research on anything relevant to doing business. Public records are a valuable source of information necessary to answer these questions.

What of the people who help corporations or businesspeople answer these questions? These individuals may conduct public records research as their profession, or as part of their profession. Public records researchers may be skilled researchers, but they also have additional special research skills that help them search public records successfully. In addition to honing telephone and paper research skills, special knowledge of public records databases and online public records information providers can make the difference between finding the answers in public records or not.

Understanding the differences between public records, public information, and private information can help the public records researcher maintain proper ethical standards and legally find the information sought in public records. Public records are government records, including but not limited to: real estate records, court records, and business records. The subcategory of public records known as court records includes bankruptcies, liens and judgments. Public records also include information about business records such as business filings, public company filings, and UCCs. Other information available in public records include professional licenses and intellectual property filings. However, not all government records are available in public records. For example, juvenile court records are generally not considered part of public records.

Federal or state law determines what public records are, such that from state to state, information available in public records differs. For example, some states allow you to search public records available at courthouses for misdemeanors or felonies, but do not allow you to search official rapsheets maintained by the criminal repository.

Public records can contain private information - this may be one of the reasons people search public records. Disclosure through public records is one of the more common ways private information becomes public. If private information is contained in public records, gaining access to such information would be within ethical and legal lines as public records often contain private information including Social Security numbers, dates of birth, driver's license numbers, medical information and financial account numbers. Public records such as bankruptcies and divorce filings contain information such as bank and credit card account numbers, employment, and the names and ages of minor children, all of which is generally considered private information. Public records pertaining to personal injury litigation may contain detailed medical information. If you want or need this information, searching public records can provide you with this necessary information.

For example, suppose you win a lawsuit and want to collect on a judgment. To determine available assets, conduct a preliminary public records search. Suppose this reveals the real property, liens, judgments, bankruptcies, and UCC filings, all of which show indebtedness instead of affluence. However, if you search public records that are likely to list assets, such as recent divorce filings, you will have a more complete picture of that individual's financial situation.

Public records can also help you find someone. For example, using public records and additional identifying information such as age, educational background, or previous employment can distinguish "John Smith" from the other John Smiths and eliminate the irrelevant individuals. Addresses can also help you find someone, not necessarily where he or she lives, but where he or she is likely to be found. Public records such as court records will provide the address where a defendant was served with a lawsuit or the records of the US Postal Service contain change of address information if the court records prove inadequate.

Vehicle accident reports also provide a wealth of private information as part of public records. Information in vehicle accident reports include the names and addresses of the drivers and accident victims, their Social Security numbers, dates of birth, drivers' license numbers, and the date and location of the accident, and the Vehicle Identification Numbers, license plate numbers, and descriptions of the cars involved.

Some records are not quite public records. "Quasi-public" records or government records that are accessible with restrictions include military records, school records, and depending on the state, worker's compensation records and criminal repository records are also included.

Searching public records can be a time consuming, tedious task. Using public records information providers such as Public Record Finder can save you time.