PrintYou can learn whether a person has any criminal convictions by one of two methods:
search criminal records in person either yourself or hire a company to do the search for you, go through one of the many online companies offering this service.
Law Library Resource Exchange, Ltd. has an informative and detailed article explaining how criminal records can be obtained. It explains which criminal records can only be obtained in person at the appropriate courthouse, and which records can be obtained through an online search. The article states that the optimum way to obtain information about criminal convictions is to develop a network of "court runners" in locations where research is required on a regular basis. An alternative is to sign up with a good on-site public records research company that has its own nationwide network court runners. The article recommends Accurate Background Checks, Inc. as one of the very best on-site research firms, with a nationwide network of skilled court researchers with extensive quality control procedures in place.
There are many Web sites that run public records searches for criminal records, most of which charge a fee. The sites will let you know which public records are being searched in their criminal search. The choices of types of searches often include either a nationwide or state-specific search. These sites include:
Background Check International, LLC, EfindOutTheTruth.com, Inc., Intelius.com, KnowX, LexisNexis, PeopleSearch.com, and US Search
Business.com provides a detailed list of online companies that provide criminal records, which list may include some of the Web sites listed above.
