Long story short: there’s a person I’m considering a business relationship with who I don’t completely trust, and I am aware that they have a criminal record but they will not divulge details of it when asked directly. (I know the more conservative, level-headed, probably-financially-secure people here will say “Stop right there! Have nothing to do with them!”, but let’s assume I have a compelling enough reason to at least look into this person)
So my question is, what type of information can I (legally) obtain and how as a private citizen who is interested in the criminal history (and really any other background information) of another private citizen who lives here? It’s complicated by the fact that I’m not even 100% sure I can trust the validity of information given by the person, but I presume to know:
- First and last name
- Age (but not exact DOB)
- City they live in currently and city they stated they were born in
That’s pretty much it. And there’s some chance even the name I have is not real, or at least the last name. Which would make public records search likely impossible if I couldn’t obtain a DOB or other information.
First couple of hits in a Google search didn’t lead to anything that looks promising, as far as matching the city history/age and name. I’m willing to pay a relatively small fee for a service if I can trust that the information provided is valid. But hiring a PI would be cost-prohibitive and is not an option here. Any constructive ideas are welcome.
How do you know a PI would be cost prohibitive? They probably subscribe to a number of public record search services and might charge a very cheap fee to just look it up for you.
I guess that was really just my assumption, so thank you for questioning it as it’s a good point, and absolutely something I will consider. Still open to other ideas as well.
BTW to elaborate if there are any mod questions about the categorization of this question: Even though I am using words like advice/ideas, I am absolutely soliciting both factual information (what options are available to me, legally) as well as opinions. But if that still necessitates a forum move, so be it.
For a small fee ($20-40) there are Internet searches that will give you a shitload of info. Just do a google search on the name and you will find services that will pop up.
The challenge for the more complete services will be having a “permissible purpose” to pull a report. We can legally pull credit and criminal background checks on would-be employees and would-be renters. But not on would-be neighbors or dates.
As **Musicat **says, there’s lots of companies selling dossiers they’ve put together from gosh-knows-what public and marketing data. What’s difficult is for you to have any idea how complete or accurate that info is.
As has been posted here umpteen times by umpteen people, the various credit rating agencies have dirty data on almost everyone. Almost nobody’s credit report is free of errors or info that isn’t really about who it says it’s about.
And this is for an industry that’s got a strong incentive to maintain quality data, operates under significant Federal oversight, and has millions of individuals actively checking their own their info trying to keep it clean. None of those things are true for the many online dossier brokers.
ETA: unless the “business relationship” you’re contemplating is a small one-time eBay purchase, the value of good info will far exceed the smallish price you’ll pay. As an attorney my wife sees small-time amateur businessmen start partnerships with scoundrels or conmen more often than you’d expect. The losses are usually massive; few businesses survive that. So get clear that unless this is a one-time arm’s length transaction you’re playing for *all *your marbles, however many that may be.
I believe in California you’ll need to know the county the crime was committed in … my information is a bit dated but when I search of the criminal history for someone, I could only pull up information for San Diego County … perhaps today California has a state-wide system in place …
Check the person’s Driver’s License … and again court records should show if the person has changed their name at some point in their life …
I can’t say this is true for California … but here in Oregon, all court records associated with a criminal conviction are public … the computer system will only say “convicted of Thief II, case # blah blah blah, in Crook County” … once in Crook County court house, I can request the court file on the case and read through everything documented …
Also check with a local Rental Owner’s Association … rental screening services are not that expensive and include credit reports, criminal backgrounds, civil cases and sometimes rental history …
It would be relevant to know what kind of ‘business relationship’ you are talking about. Is this a partnership where you both would be running a business? Is this someone you would be buying something from? Are there large sums of money involved? I would think about the worst case scenario and what that would mean to you. Would you lose a few hundred dollars, a few thousand dollars or most of your life savings? If you don’t even trust they are giving you their real name then that’s a huge red flag in my book.
First I would do a cursory search based on the information you have and see if you can validate that it’s correct. If there are large sums of money involved I would then pay to have someone do a deep search. PIs can get information from a variety of sources and tell you whether this person is a risky character to deal with.
No, CA doesnt. and each county has a different set of regs on disclosure.