About Civil Records Searches

Civil suits are filed when a plaintiff believes they are due restitution or compensation for a wrong done by a defendant (the applicant being screened). Civil searches are conducted at the upper level court in each jurisdiction requested. Although a civil search will cover law suits filed for damages, bankruptcy, personal injury etc. where a plaintiff (or at least their lawyer) feels a defendant has violated a civil law or code and seek compensation by legal means, National Crime Search Inc. can only report the information when the applicant is the defendant.

Although they are public, civil records are not as easily available as criminal records and are often stored in paper files, require a clerk search and can be stored in many different fashions based on monetary amount involved, type of suit, jurisdiction of plaintiff or defendant etc. Due to the lack of consistency with which civil records are stored, the time frame and cost of conducting civil searches varies greatly. The 4nannies.com civil records search will verify the existence of a record only where the applicant was a defendant, and occasionally summary of the type of action. The complete record can be obtained at additional cost, and the hiring family will always be asked to approve the costs before that step is taken.

For the most part, record information is only verified by name, as no further IDs are stored with civil records. Sometimes an address will accompany a civil record and we can use that for further research into the ID of the defendant.

Civil records are not related to criminal records, although both are considered public information. Civil suits may follow criminal cases for damages, such as a case where someone is injured due to a drunken driving accident; however the two cases will not appear on the same index.

From Blacks Law dictionary, the following outlines the philosophical differences between civil and criminal law:
