Comprehensive Guide to Background Checks and Court Research
Explore a detailed overview of conducting background checks and court research, covering resources like PACER, CourtListener, Nexis, and more. Learn about the limitations of PACER, alternative tools available, and tips for efficient backgrounding. Discover how to access public records collections and conduct high-level background checks using various platforms.
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Courts and backgrounding Brad Heath Reuters brad.heath@tr.com (202) 527-9709
Federal courts: PACER World s ugliest useful website Search by name back to around 2000, sometimes farther Obtain complete dockets and copies of documents Get all (and I mean all) the details on bankruptcies Track cases in real time (in some places, at least) Find some weird and interesting stuff
The many limits of PACER It s not free (at least not yet) Dockets and documents only for federal courts (and not the Supreme Court) Can t (really) search by topic, or within cases or documents; you have to have an idea what you re looking for.
PACER starting point Once you have an account, https://pcl.uscourts.gov Then, Find Parties (Advanced)
Things that arent PACER CourtListener and RECAP https://courtlistener.com/recap Includes a ton of federal court filings, from a browser extension Searchable by the full text of documents Set up email alerts for cases, search terms, etc. Access to state court appellate decisions Sqoop and Pacer Pro Set up alerts to track cases (sometimes faster than other) LexisNexis CourtLink Search text of federal, state court filings (and pay $$$$)
Backgrounding more broadly Search available public records collections, for a fee: Westlaw Accurint TLO Nexis / SmartLinx report
High-level backgrounding with Nexis Start with a SmartLinx search
Nexis and other sites landmines! These sites search bigger collections of records (credit headers, voter registration, licenses, property transfers, court records, arrest records, etc.) and they re also woefully incomplete Lots of the information you ll find is wrong or outdated; at best you re getting tips here Some of the information gets matched to the wrong people Want to know how ugly it is? Search for yourself
Best backgrounding: Go local Nexis and other tools can give you some top-level details, including where a person lives and does business Knowing that opens the doors to lots of additional resources: Search the local city/county/state court dockets Search local real estate, deed and lien records FOIA police arrest logs or county jail bookings FOIA police calls from their address
