Those who look unfavorably upon district court records frequently opt for state criminal record searches instead. As with federal searches, though, these statewide queries can often return incomplete results. To understand why this is, consider the hierarchy of reportage throughout a state.

Unless a case is being tried at the state level (which does happen), its records are maintained by the county in which it's settled. State bureaus then collect verdicts from their lower courts and aggregate the information in central databases. This information is not routinely updated or managed, though. Instead, it is more often used as a research tool and is hence an insufficient resource for those seeking up-to-date records.

The Value of State Criminal Record Searches

State criminal record searches aren't without their place, however. Oftentimes, they can be used to validate or corroborate evidence unearthed at the local or district levels. Still, to be truly effective, these state criminal record searches are only useful to those who know the state of their subject's residency. It's quite possible that a convicted felon could move from one state to another and simply lie on his application about his past residential addresses.

To remedy this problem, a number of research agencies conduct address history searches or past employment verification. These records serve dual purposes, as they not only furnish their requestors with relevant info on things such as work habits, disciplinary problems, house payments, and foreclosures, but also pinpoint precisely where a subject lived between a given set of dates. Once armed with this information, diggers may then conduct more targeted searches of local databases as well.