Public records search: what counts as a public record and where to find it

A public record is information a government agency holds that the law lets anyone see or request, from court cases and property deeds to business filings and professional licenses. Many official portals for a public records search are free. Federal court documents on PACER cost $0.10 a page, capped at $3 per document, and a birth certificate costs $9 to $25 in the four states we checked, before online service fees.

What counts as a public record

It depends on which government holds the record. The federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) gives a right of access to records of the federal executive branch only. It doesn't reach Congress, the federal courts or state and local agencies, and every state has its own statute for state and local records.

State definitions can be broad. Florida's covers documents, papers, letters, maps, books, tapes, photographs, films, sound recordings, data processing software and other material, in any form, made or received in connection with official business by any agency.

Filing a FOIA request costs nothing, though fees can apply in some cases. The law has nine exemptions that protect interests such as personal privacy, national security and law enforcement.

Public records search: where to look, what it costs, how long it takes

Check fees on the state's own site before you send money. The CDC directory is the place to start, but its Texas page was last reviewed in 2019 and itself tells readers to confirm current fees with the state.

Some public records aren't online at all. Los Angeles County's property records, for example, have to be requested from the recorder's office.

What isn't public

Some records you'd expect to be public are restricted. Florida treats birth records less than 125 years old as confidential and issues them only to the person named (if 18 or older), the parents listed on the record, legal guardians and a few others. Iowa's court portal leaves out confidential and juvenile cases.

Your credit report isn't public either. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, a consumer reporting agency may give your information only to people with a valid need, usually a creditor, insurer, employer, landlord or other business considering an application from you, and it needs your written consent before giving it to an employer.

Public records and people-search sites

People-search sites build profiles from many sources. According to the FTC, Spokeo collected personal information about consumers from hundreds of online and offline data sources, and in 2012 it agreed to pay an $800,000 civil penalty to settle charges that it marketed those profiles to human resources professionals and job recruiters while operating as a consumer reporting agency without following the FCRA. Spokeo now says it is not a consumer reporting agency.

The official portal shows what the court or agency actually holds. A people-search profile, or an email check like CheckMate.bio's, gives you leads to confirm against it. People search by email compares the approaches, and our Spokeo alternative guide looks at Spokeo in detail.

Worked example: a public records search before a first date

Say your match, Sam, lives in Des Moines, says they run a small software company registered in Delaware, and has given you an email address to talk off the app. This is how we'd check them, in this order:

Same-name matches are the trap here. A court case or registry entry under the same name may belong to someone else, so compare middle names, ages and addresses where the record shows them before you conclude anything.

The FTC's advice for anyone you meet online is never to send money or gifts to a sweetheart you haven't met in person. People reported losing $1.14 billion to romance scams in 2023, with a median loss of $2,000. Our guide to checking someone before a date covers the rest of the routine.

Questions people ask

What is a public record?

A public record is a document or piece of information that a government agency makes or receives in its official business and that the public can see or request under a public records law. Court dockets, property deeds, business filings, professional licenses and sex offender registries are common examples. FOIA covers federal executive branch agencies, and each state has its own law for state and local records.

How do I do a public records search for free?

Go to the official source for the record type: NSOPW for sex offender registries, the state court portal for state cases, the state business registry for companies and the state licensing agency for professional licenses. Many of these searches are free. Federal court documents on PACER cost $0.10 a page, and fees are waived if you spend $30 or less in a quarter.

Are court records public?

Many are. Federal court records are on PACER, where court opinions are always free, and some states publish dockets online at no charge; Iowa's shows case titles, parties, criminal charges and dispositions. Confidential and juvenile cases are kept out of Iowa's portal, and its documents are viewed on public terminals at the courthouse.

How do I get a copy of a birth or death certificate?

Order it from the vital records office in the state where the birth or death happened; the CDC's Where to Write directory links each one. In the states we checked, a birth certificate costs $9 in Florida, $20 in Pennsylvania, $22 in Texas and $25 by mail in Washington, and waits run from 3 to 5 business days in Florida to 6 to 10 weeks for a mail order in Washington. Florida issues birth records under 125 years old only to the person named, their parents and a few others.

Is a public records search the same as a background check?

No. A public records search is something you run yourself on official sites. A background check for a job, an apartment or a loan is a report from a consumer reporting agency that can combine public records with credit, driving and employment data. Third-party reports used for those decisions fall under the FCRA. What is a background check covers the types and prices.

Are email addresses public records?

Sometimes. Florida's licensing department notes on its license search page that under Florida law, email addresses are public records. We know of no official directory of email addresses, though, so to see where an address is used online you have to check the sites themselves. CheckMate.bio does that across 2,500+ sites, 298 of them by the address itself and the rest by the username before the @.

What the results actually mean

CheckMate.bio groups findings into categories ('Social Media', 'Gaming', 'Dating', 'Finance', 'Business' and more) and attaches a confidence score to every match. A score of 80% or higher means the email is almost certainly linked to that service. A score between 50% and 80% is a likely match. Anything below 50% lands in the 'Possible matches' section and should be treated as a weak signal, not a verdict.

• Categories show the kind of accounts that exist: the shape of someone's online footprint.
• Per-service fields (usernames, display names, bio text, last active dates) help you confirm whether the match is really the person you care about.
• Confidence scores help you separate solid matches from noise. Treat low-confidence hits as leads to investigate, not as proof.

A note on ethics

CheckMate.bio indexes public and breach-derived data. It does not grant access to private messages or full passwords (passwords from breach records are always masked), or to anything you wouldn't be able to find with enough patience and the right search queries. Use it for the same reasons you'd Google someone: safety, due diligence, re-connecting with people, or simply knowing what a public profile says about you. Be honest about your reasons, and respect the answer you get.