The Center For Democracy & Technology conducts surveys of the practices of federal, state and local courts in making information public via the Internet.
It finds a wide variety of practices and policies, and an important, nearly singular trend.
Courts and other government background check services are making their records available to anyone via the Internet, often for free.
Free background checks are being offered by many government sources.
Are background checks becoming an "open source" service? Governments are making records available that span statewide background check services to many instances of single jurisdictions, such as county-level courts, providing Internet access to their records.
Some governments provide access to both criminal and civil records while others restrict users' access to records that may contain sensitive background check information.
And while some governments offer free comprehensive access to their background check services, many others charge users a range of fees for Internet access.
On the one hand, moving to post background check services to the Internet represents a hushed upheaval in transparency and accountability for both individuals and government, part of a rapidly shifting social reality.
Public access to electronic court background check services provides a convenient way for the public to broaden government checks and balances and ensure the fairness and equality of its operations.
Concurrent to the trend towards background check transparency, governments are struggling to find balance, such as balancing privacy and accountability.
What information should be available Internet? Many governments make judicial opinions at the appellate levels freely available Internet but do not offer Internet access to trial court proceedings, which generally contain more detailed and sensitive evidence.
Others offer access to trial court dockets and a variety of other information at the trial level.
Should a distinction be drawn between civil cases and criminal background check access? Another set of issues concern cost.
Is it appropriate to charge for Internet access? Does a subscription or fee-based system unfairly discriminate against those who cannot afford fees for background check services? Do fees exclude everyday citizens? Questions like these pose a significant challenge to governments attempting to design background check services.
In addition to exclusions that may be caused by background check fees, there's a knowledge gap.
Very few citizens are aware that the information is available to them, much less what type or how to find it.
Yet, for example, the entire Federal Court System is open to all.
A search can lead to the federal government's registry for all federal criminal, civil, bankruptcy and tax cases, for example.
The federal registry charges 8-cents per search.
County courthouse websites can be located, many of which offer free searches of criminal, civil and traffic court cases.
Also, Secretary Of State records can be accessed, giving users free background check information on business ownership and transactions.
In addition the web offers articles on important issues and laws, such as those surrounding privacy rights.
Guideline for conducting background checks can also be found.
It provides anyone with the ability to search and locate individuals and businesses, criminal and civil court records, property records, bankruptcies, liens, judgments, tax cases, business records, employment histories, federal government exclusion lists, OFAC records, FDA debarment records, healthcare sanctions records -- in short, information to conduct a thorough background background check.
There remains quite a bit of secrecy and misunderstanding surrounding background checks.
In part because it was long the domain of private investigators who kept the tricks of the trade to themselves, such as themythology "nationwide criminal records databases" that report criminal records from every jurisdiction in the United States.
No such background check exists.
Many commercial background check companies offer database searches that cover many jurisdictions in the majority of states, but they are all incomplete.
Commercial nationwide criminal records databases can cover a lot of ground and inexpensively.
So, they are worthwhile.
However, they may not include the jurisdiction needed.
The FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services Division manages the National Crime Information Center, a database of nationwide criminal records.
It is the most complete source of records, yet even it is not perfect.
Most misdemeanors are not included in the database and many county and state records never make their way to the FBI.
En route to the FBI from counties and states there are breakdowns in the process.
All this to say, you can do your own, free background checks.
However, it's not always straightforward, you may need to do some homework to do it right.
Research Source: The Background Checkepedia [http://www.
BackgroundNow.
com]