How Free Public Records Searches May Cost Time And Money
How Free Public Records Searches May Cost Time And Money
Public records serve a vital role, whether investigating a party or witness, verifying an identity, or simply conducting exploratory research before initiating a legal action.“Free public records” are indeed accessible to the public, but are they cost-effective? Public records obtained through the open Web often have flaws that end up costing more money or valuable time than a paid search.
“Free public records” are indeed accessible to the public, but are they cost-effective? Public records obtained through the open Web often have flaws that end up costing more money or valuable time than a paid search.
Specifically, there are five prominent flaws in relying on free sources for public records inquiries:
Incomplete results
Although websites can claim to provide information on an individual, they can’t capture data from multiple sources for the whole picture.
A free criminal records search that can’t access all jurisdictions, for instance, may fail to produce a significant conviction. Criminal convictions are almost always immensely relevant, making a comprehensive public records search platform essential.
Lack of centralization
While it may be possible to access all available public records databases using free search platforms, it’s virtually impossible to retrieve all available records using one free platform, or five.
Imagine visiting separate websites for criminal, utility, real estate, and DMV records. Now imagine having to visit numerous jurisdiction-specific websites for each of those records. You would need to visit dozens of sites, if not hundreds, for a sufficiently inclusive search.
Little guarantee of accuracy
The question of a platform’s accuracy doesn’t pertain to primary sources such as a county registrar’s website or a court records database maintained by the court itself. Rather, accuracy concerns arise with secondary sources, such as websites that compile information from multiple primary sources.
Often, those secondary source websites want to entice users to pay for premium services by hinting they have relevant information about the subject in question. The free “hint” information may or may not be accurate. To find out, the user will likely have to pay a fee. In short, you typically get what you pay for with free information.
False positives and false negatives
Many search engine capabilities are evaluated by the rate at which they return “false positives” and “false negatives.”
False positives are irrelevant results, such as information about an individual with the same or similar name as the intended subject. False negatives happen when relevant information isn’t returned, such as when a search engine fails to find alternate spellings of an individual’s name.
False negatives are more prevalent in primary source searches where only exact matches are returned, while false positives are more common in secondary source searches, where providers err on the side of offering too much information (perhaps to promote premium services). Free platforms have markedly higher rates of both, making it more likely that vital information is overlooked or that time is wasted sifting through irrelevant results.
Out-of-date information
Whereas primary sources of public records are typically updated routinely, free secondary public records search platforms are not.
Worse yet, free services will list outdated information alongside current data, and fail to distinguish between the two. This often forces the user to undertake additional searches on other platforms to verify which entry is the most current.
Public records searches should retrieve current, complete facts about an individual. It’s plain to see why free online public records resources – lacking in accuracy, exhaustiveness, or both – are best avoided.
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