How do I decide whether to run a County Criminal Search, Statewide Criminal Search, Multi-State Criminal Search or a U.S. Federal District Court Search?
All four searches involve criminal records research, but the source of information and the focus of each search is very different. While it is possible for all three to yield the same case information on a subject, your chances of finding information will be greater if you follow these simple guidelines: We strongly recommend ordering both a County and Statewide and or a multi-state Criminal Record Search since Counties may be as much as 6 months or more late in reporting data to the State repository. In fact, counties may not report some crimes to the State at all. For example, a conviction for “simple” battery may not be reported to the State but an “Aggravated” battery involving the use of a weapon would be. Moreover, an applicant often forgets to list other counties they have lived in where they may have a criminal record and in such cases the information is more likely to show up in the State or multi-state criminal records. There are, however, still other limitations to the State
