You Can Do a Free Criminal Record Search

Posted by admin on Jan 12, 2010

Are you concerned with the possibility that someone you know or interact with has a secret criminal past? Maybe someone you’re doing business with (or in a relationship with) seems to be hiding something. Are you trying to confirm that the landscaper, housekeeper, and people watching your kids for you are trustworthy? Your reasons for wanting to do a search are your own. My job is to advise you on how you can do it. Here’s what you need to know if you want to search criminal record databases in a practical, efficient way.

Under the right circumstances, doing a free criminal record search is fairly quick and easy. If you have fairly complete information about the person’s past addresses, you may well be able to do the work yourself using public criminal record search resources. You’ll almost surely find the records you seek in the local courthouse. Except perhaps for very new records that haven’t been processed yet. These records may be archived somewhere out of the way, but as public records, they will be available. You should know that some jurisdictions are now making their information available online. You should also know that some jurisdictions are starting to charge for access to these records. This means you’ll probably want to call the courthouse or police station to check for these things before you stop in & ask for access. And remember, you need to do this for every place the person lived if you want to be thorough about it.

Things get even more tricky if you only have limited information about the person in question. You need pretty complete information about the person to be confident in your results. If you don’t know all the places they’ve lived, you can’t check them and could easily miss something important. Hiring a Criminal Record Search firm to do the legwork for you is often a better choice. One of the biggest benefits of these services is that they gather information from as many sources as possible, and present it to you in one report.

What this means to you is that will have a greater chance of identifying criminal records with these types of services than if you try to do it yourself. At the best sites, preliminary searches are free. But you will have to pay if the preliminary search indicates that relevant information is available. Even so, when you think about the time and effort you’ll save, and the likelihood that you’ll get more complete data, this is almost always the best way to go.

To learn more about criminal record research and to run a free preliminary public records searchCLICK HERE.


Florida criminal record searches

Posted by admin on Jan 2, 2010

Aside from the business itself, the most important aspect of the company’s business are it’s people. Nowadays, companies are very particular with the type of person they are hiring for a job position. Too many instances wherein no background check on Florida criminal records, was performed led to negligence hiring lawsuits. When a person with a propensity to criminal behavior as outlined in his Florida criminal records was hired without conducting a background check and committed a crime in the context of his job, the employer could be held liable. This is why many companies today are very concerned over this particular aspect of the hiring process.

The Official Database for Florida Criminal Records

Florida criminal records are stored in a database formed by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, under their Criminal History Information section. The database was provided in order to allow people to search for Florida criminal records or criminal history information during the screening process prior to hiring or during the pre-employment background check. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s Florida criminal records database is updated daily so you can be sure to get the most up to date information stored there. Also, since the Florida Criminal History Information is the official database of the State, the Florida criminal records you get there contain data that are assuredly accurate and reliable.

The online database allows information to be exchanged over the Internet based on the names or other identifying information that you provide. As such, the names contained in the Florida criminal records returned in the search results may not be the same person whom you are inquiring about. To make sure that it is or not the same person, fingerprints have to be obtained and compared.

Unofficial Databases of Florida Criminal Records

Even though there is an official database for Florida criminal records, for some public records researcher, it is not enough. This is because, not all Florida criminal records in the Florida Depart of Law Enforcement database are accessible or open to the public. Also, the State of Florida charges each individual search .00, whether or not the search yields results.

To limit the expense and widen the scope of the search, public records researches use more than one database for Florida criminal records. Usually, the first step of the research process involves visiting the Internet sites that keep online databases of Florida criminal records. These records may or may not come for free as they get most of their information from public record vendors.


California Criminal Record Searches

Posted by admin on Sep 22, 2009

In some states, there are no provisions of law that prevents an employer from using your criminal records and documents to decide on hiring you. This further means that pre-employment background checks are even more greatly emphasized as this is the only means of determining that the person does or does not indeed have a record. Thus, having no record to taint your background is an absolute must for most people if they want to improve their chances of getting hired.

In California, things take a different pattern. Section 432.7 of the California Labor Code states that “No employer, …, shall ask an applicant for employment to disclose, …, information concerning an arrest or detention that did not result in conviction, or information concerning a referral to, and participation in, any … diversion program, nor shall any employer seek from any source whatsoever, or utilize, as a factor in determining any condition of employment including hiring, promotion, termination, …, any record of arrest or detention that did not result in conviction, …. Nothing in this section shall prevent an employer from asking an employee or applicant for employment about an arrest for which the employee or applicant is out on a bail or on his or her own recognizance pending trial….”

In more simple terms, employers in California cannot use the California criminal records of prospective employees as a basis for their hiring decisions. The only exception to the rule is when the California criminal records involve an actual conviction. There are cases when California criminal records are established even when the suspect has not been convicted of the crime. In this case, employers cannot use these types of California criminal records in accordance with the Labor Code, Section 432.7. Also, employers cannot ask any third party entity or private organization to inquire upon the applicant’s California criminal records and use the information or data taken to base their decisions.

However, as provided by this same code, an employer reserves the right to inquire about a prospective employee’s arrest which should be included in the California criminal records. Also, the employer may ask about the circumstances of around a pending criminal trial in which the applicant is involved and is, as of the moment, out on bail. Such instances also lead to the creation of a California criminal records although they might not result in convictions.

So, in conclusion, unless you have a conviction in your California criminal records, you are protected from any hiring decision that is biased on your California criminal records.