Have you ever used an on-line criminal record look-up service?

[Roxanne Appleby]

I need to look up the criminal record of the deadbeat loser who's the other party in the "divorce-from-hell." We learned he's probably got some "priors," at least drunk driving, which would be useful on the credibility front. Basically, I just want the name of any site considered reputable, or any that is a sham rip-off.

A couple people warned of possible legal dangers in me doing this. It's a risk I'm willing to take, as part of my duty to provide moral support to the victimized woman in this. I'm not really worried about it, though – it's not like I'm using this to screen job applicants or anything.

Thanks, gang.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

I used one that was free for basic use and pay for anything particular. It appeared to be a good site though. I lost the URL though...

Didn't need to use it. Just for fun and all.

 

[Aurora Black]

Some links I found in Google

http://www.rapsheets.com/

http://www.abika.com/

http://www.references-etc.com/criminal_records.html

http://www.efindoutthetruth.com/

 

[Zeb_Carter]

You may want to try using www.Zabasearch.com first then go on for background checks to the sites they use.

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

Well, I haven't, but if that same pedophile starts bothering me again and I get any info about him, he won't be e-mailing me again. He will be too busy fighting off cellmates in prison.

 

[Huckleman2000]

Lots of the URLs you'd associate with this sort of service will actually go to just a few actual companies - Intelius is a major one.

 

[Liar]

As an employer, I sometimes did. Since coinvicted criminals are obliged to provide employers with their record, I did a routine check on every appliant. If they had a record or not didn't really matter much (one of our top saleswomen have multiple DUIs from her youth, and our lead software developer is a former gang thug). But if they tried to lie about it, they were out.

There is a national online database for it, but it's totally pants to find one's way around, plus it required special authorization to search it. Much easier then to just call city hall and have them look up the person. They were always effective and very helpful.

 

[Guest]

 

[damnewc]

I used one once. It was state website that we used to do background checks for perspective employees. It was a Texas state website. It worked well. It was a pay site, pay per search, but I do not rememebr the coas, seven bucks or something. The catch was you had to sign up offline and go through a bureaucratic hoop jumping contest.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

These days, Rox, many counties have started websites which contain search engines for all county courts. This is one example here in Ohio. You could check the home page of the relevant county to see if they have something similar, and you'd get much more reliable results than at one of the pay sites.

Thanks, Jammies. The problem is, this joker may have stuff in a number of states. I just want to pay my $25 or $50 and get the whole-USA database search.