subject: Criminal Background Check - Instant Criminal Records Lookup [print this page] How to do a quick criminal background check
If you are an employer recruiting new staff then you need to be as thorough as you can reasonably be when you interview applicants and when you are checking their credentials and resumes. One of the most important checks that you should be doing is a criminal background check to make sure that you are aware of any criminal history the person might have.
Someone's criminal background could be of great importance to you even if you aren't about to offer them employment. What about if you are dating them or asking them to take care of your children. It would be a bonus if you knew you had checked them out first.
To do a thorough criminal background check on someone can be time consuming and quite difficult because there are so many different places that you have to apply to. Most of the time you don't have the time to do this let alone any inclination to do it. Unless you can give the job to someone else of course and even then you will have to wait for the results. It is possible however to do a very fast check using an online service.
Employers - Don't do it without permission
Unfortunately we live in a society where it seems that almost anything that you do can get you into trouble with law suits. The simple answer to this is never to do anything but that isn't really a practical answer at all is it? The next best thing is to ensure that when you are seeking and obtaining any information about someone then you must be sure that you have permission to do so from that person first.
This should be in the form of a signed waiver and could save any unpleasantness later. If the candidate won't sign it then eliminate them from your short list. They must effectively give away any privacy rights they might have to the information that you need to allow you to continue with the application.
Searching for criminal records
Criminal records are not as easy to locate as you might think. records are kept at county and municipal courts as well as state trial courts. The lower courts, in theory at least, pass their records up to the state repository. Unfortunately the accuracy of this process varies from state to state which is why investigators recommend that you search at both county and state court records offices if you don't want to miss anything.
Unfortunately this system isn't very consistent. Sometimes the transfer of records is slow or non existent so to do a good job you should apply to the county courts too. It isn't practical to check absolutely every court so checking in the places where you think crimes might have been committed near to where he may have lived is a reasonable compromise.
You can also check the federal courts using the U.S. Party/Case Index or PACER. These cases tend to be the more serious kind so it's a good idea to check especially where the post you are offering is of a senior level.
Instant criminal background check with online public records
The process of finding criminal background history outlined above is the right way of learning about any cases that someone might have been involved with in the states and counties that you check. It's a long winded process that can cost you a lot of time and money and it won't tell you if the person has records or warrants in other parts of the country. There is a way that you can do near instant background checks on someone by using online public records web sites. Using one of these online background checking sites might tell you what you what you need to know at a fraction of the cost so why not give it a try.
