How Can I do a Public Records Search?

In this day and age, knowing who you’re dealing with can be very important. When your safety or the safety of your loved ones is on the line, it can make sense to want to be sure. Knowing how to find an accurate, reliable public records search makes this process a lot easier and a lot quicker.

How are Public Records Defined?

It’s quite simple, but public records aren’t all-encompassing. It is defined as any document that is made or filed in the course of public business or law. This includes things like birth certificates, court cases, marriage licenses, obituaries, licensing records, business records such as articles of incorporation and more. Under the Freedom of Information Act, all publicly available records can be requested by any citizen.

Going Through Government Agencies.

This is a popular way to go about it, and your approach may vary depending on what you’re looking for. For instance, if you’re looking for court records you may want to check with your city or county courts. Criminal records can be much the same, as with marriage records. This can be timely and ineffective if you don’t know every place the person you’d like to look into has lived, but can be useful if you have a narrow search area.

Using Online Services.

There are many different companies that offer these kinds of services and may be helpful depending on what you’re looking for. For instance, FamilySearch may be able to help with birth records for free but you need to have somewhat specific information. These kinds of services typically require you to know the area that you’re requesting information from or a time period that you’re searching for. Sometimes you could even need to know a birth name for the person you’d like to look into, and if they’ve changed their name this can be kind of a tricky task.

There are also all-encompassing services like SpyFly that will provide you with all the information you need with the click of your mouse. These kinds of services instantly find all publicly available information on someone, including arrest records, driving records, court records, and many others. Sometimes different services offer different searches, but the vast majority of these services strive to bring you all of the most accurate, relevant information that you may need to decide if you want to involve the person in question in your life.

The Age of Information Comes with more Ease of Access.

Ever since the internet was created and rolled out in large, many government agencies have started digitizing their records. This makes it easier for them to hold on to their records without having to expand their storage significantly, and have also made it easier for you to locate the information that you’re looking for. Whatever your reason is for wanting to do a background check on someone, the information is easier to access now than ever.

There are multiple ways to go about performing a public records search, and each different approach can suit your needs depending on what you want. Whether you want to just find out if you have a warrant out for your arrest, or you want to make sure that your kid’s new friend’s parents are on the up and up there’s an approach that will work best for you.

***SpyFly provides consumers affordable, immediate access to public record information. Federal laws prohibit businesses from using SpyFly’s service to make decisions about employment, insurance, consumer credit, tenant screening, or for any other purpose subject to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 USC 1681 et seq.***