Get records pulled directly from the courthouse where they were created, not from a secondhand database.
A county criminal search goes straight to the source. Every criminal case starts at the county courthouse, and that's exactly where our researchers look. Instead of relying on a national database that may be incomplete or out of date, we send experienced court researchers directly to the courthouse to pull the record yourself.
This is the most accurate criminal background check you can run. Courts report that national databases often miss pending cases, recent filings, and records from counties that don't share data upstream. A county criminal search catches what those databases miss, which is exactly what matters when you're making a hiring decision.
We cover all 50 states. In Connecticut, our records go back to the late 1980s and early 1990s, far deeper than most providers who stop at 7 to 10 years.
Our researchers go to the physical courthouse, not a third-party database. You get the original record, not a copy of a copy.
Most competitors only go back 7 to 10 years. In Connecticut, we return records dating to the late 1980s and early 1990s.
We have a network of court researchers across the country who handle both terminal-based and clerk-based courthouse searches.
Every search follows FCRA guidelines. Our entire team holds individual FCRA certification, so you stay protected.
Every county criminal search returns the following data points when available in the jurisdiction.
We work as fast as the courthouse allows. Here's what to expect.
Several states, including California and Michigan, have removed personal identifiers like date of birth from public courthouse terminals. That sounds minor, but it creates a real problem. Without those identifiers, our researchers can't match a record to your candidate with certainty. That means the search has to go to a clerk, and in busy courts, clerks work through requests in the order they arrive.
In parts of Maine, public terminals have been removed entirely. Every search requires a clerk request, and some of those queues are deep. We always flag these jurisdictions upfront so you know what to expect before the order goes in. We never leave you guessing on timing.
This is also why a national database search is never a substitute for a county criminal search. Databases don't update in real time. They miss pending cases, recent filings, and records from counties that simply don't report upstream. If accuracy matters for your hire, the county search is the one that counts.
Employers across every industry rely on county criminal records as a core part of their screening process.
We switched to Research Services a few years back and honestly wish we had found them sooner.
Before making the change, we were using a provider that only searched the Superior Court and one main District Court per county in Massachusetts. That sounds fine until you realize some counties have 10 or more District Courts. We learned that lesson the hard way.
We hired someone who came back clean on their background check. Turned out they had a record sitting at one of the smaller District Courts in Worcester County that our old provider never touched. We only found out after an incident happened at the store. That was a wake-up call.
Research Services searches every single District Court in every county, not just the obvious ones. That level of thoroughness is what background screening is supposed to look like and most providers just aren’t doing it.
If you’re in Massachusetts and you think a county criminal search means one courthouse, think again. Make sure whoever you’re using is covering all of them. That’s the only reason we made the switch, and we haven’t looked back since.
County criminal searches pull from where records originate. But not every county reports everything up to the state depository, and some statewide databases miss pending charges or records from municipal and JP courts. Running both together gives you the most complete picture possible, and we make it easy to order them as a package.
Learn About Statewide Criminal SearchNo contracts. No minimums. Real people answering every call. Let's get your first county criminal search on order today.