Mastering Online Public Records - Court Documents
Discover what you can learn from court records, the myths and challenges of online court searching, what you need to know before starting your search, and the best sources and strategy for this type of online research.
October
17,
2025
12:00 PM - 01:00 PM (Eastern Time)
Duration: 1 Day
Hours: 1 Hour
Training Level: All Levels
About the Course:
Civil and criminal court records are a key component of due diligence, fraud investigations, or any situation in which you need to dig deep into the backgrounds of individuals and companies. However, searching online court records is challenging, even for professional researchers and investigators.
In this course, you’ll discover how to save time and get better results by taking a strategic approach to searching online court records. We will cover what you can learn from court records, the myths and challenges of online court searching, what you need to know before starting your search, and the best sources and strategies for this type of online research.
Course Objectives:
- Recognize the value of online court records and what you can learn from them.
- Identify the myths and challenges associated with searching online court records and best practices for working around them.
- Recognize what you need to know before starting your search.
- Explore key resources and a strategy for searching online court records.
Who is the Target Audience?
- Investigators, risk managers, operations managers, compliance professionals, anti-fraud professionals, law firm researchers, paralegals
Basic Knowledge:
- There are no prerequisites for this course.
Curriculum
Total Duration: 1 Hour
What you can learn from court records
- In what situations are court records useful?
- What information can be found in court records?
- Pros and cons of online court records
Myths and challenges of searching online court records
- Online court searching is not easy due to inconsistencies in the system and issues with data entry
- There is information missing from online court records, since not all jurisdictions, cases, and dates are included online
- Everything is not in one place, and you will need to search multiple sources
- Best practices for working with these challenges
- Database disclaimers and disclaimers to use in your reports to help manage expectations
What to know before starting your search
- Court structure
- Basic definitions for court searching
- Federal courts, types of cases, and levels
- State courts, types of cases, and levels
- Local courts – issues and how to find
- Other types of courts
- Dockets – what they are and what’s included
- Key court documents
- Other questions to ask about jurisdictions, identifiers, needed information, dates, and format for documentation
Best sources and strategy for searching online court records
- Direct sources vs. aggregators: definitions, examples, pros and cons for each
- State court systems
- Pacer.gov: What it’s for, learning how to use, what’s not included
- National Archives Court Records
- Other sources for federal court info
- County & local courts: challenges, best practices
- Criminal records
- Filling in the gaps
- Top tips for searching online court records