by Chris Folsum

Created on: December 07, 2009   Last Updated: December 08, 2009

There is one way to get detailed criminal case information on individuals who have records. I will show you how to get an actual criminal record on a real person by the end of this article. To do your own search you will need to know where this person lives, works, plays, and frequents currently and in the past. This is so you can decide where to look for criminal information on them.

The sites that say they offer free criminal background info require only a first and last name, they scan the national data base and come back with only a vague result. The free criminal record result they give an inquirer are meant to get that person to purchase a product. Therefore, the free report might indicate a criminal record exist, but you might end up paying a fee just to find out the person has had a couple of traffic tickets in their lifetime. Also, it could go the opposite and a site like criminalsearches.com. I ran my own name and can tell you that the records they gave were not up to date, or complete. In fact, the cases listed listed are a couple of traffic tickets, when I have more serious crimes on my record. Its not too much more serious than that, but a misdemeanor from a year ago that isn't listed at all under the free check. It's best to do your own search of the same databases these sites search.

So, if you want an absolutely FREE criminal record check. Here's what you do:

Find out all you can about the individual. Most importantly current address and former addresses, you need at least the city or county and states they've lived in. You may need their date of birth if they have a common name or the middle name. Once you have this info you bypass all the paysites with their bogus free come ons and you go to the county court website where that person lives and works and frequents. More than likely the courts website will have case information available. I live in Orange County CA.

So, I go to the http://www.occourts.org to look up my info. This is the Superior Court of Orange County homepage. The following is a step by step on how to look up someones record.

On the right hand side are menu options, click Online Case Access.

Here you will find more menu options to choose from regarding the kind of case you want to access. Click Criminal and Traffic Cases.

You will be redirected to a disclaimer page, ACCEPT the terms at the bottom.

You are redirected to a page with a search form. We can look up Albert Gore here who does have a criminal case out of this particular court.

Under last name enter: Gore

Under first name enter: Albert. Hit enter.

You will see there is one record for Albert Arnold Gore, the former vice president's son. It's a matter of public record and received a good deal of media attention at the time so no ones privacy is being violated by doing this. You can find out what the charges were what the penalty was the status of the case if any hearings are scheduled. If you wanted a more in depth criminal background check on the young Mr. Gore free of charge, you'd need to do your homework and find out what other courts' websites to check.

It's possible not all county courts are online yet with their case information, so this is what you would need to find out first to run a records check on someone. If the court does offer online information, you should have the first middle and last name available and possibly dob, to make sure you are not looking at someones elses no-nos. Goodluck and remember, all sex offender information is free of charge on the Internet. It never hurts to run a check like this even if you think its unlikely there will be anything there...you just never know.

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