Free Government Public Record Sites

Keep in mind these important truths about searching online public records provided by government agencies:

• More than 25% of state and county government agencies do not provide public records online.
Less than 50% of the courts provide online/onsite search equivalency to docket lookups.
• Government sites can be free or fee-based. Generally, the fee-based sites are much more robust.
• Most free government public record name search sites contain no personal identifiers beyond the name. This can be a problem when researching a common name.
• Often the searchable and viewable information found online is limited to name indexes and summary data rather than document images. Most access sites – especially those that are free – permit the former and not the latter. While online portals can be a quick path to viewable or downloadable record data, they often are merely conduits to view a record index. To view the actual records, one must usually place an order to receive document images.