It takes time for courts to feed information into state repositories. Consequently, a multi-jurisdictional search may not always include the most recent records, such as newly filed felony charges. Ordering a direct county courthouse database search can reveal important last minute updated information, but how do you select which counties to add to a broader search?
Checking the county where a candidate currently lives is advisable for employers who need greater confidence in the process. You may wish to check all the counties throughout the metro for candidates hailing from the main metropolitan areas because it’s likely they have lived or worked in more than one area. For a quick overview of the largest metropolitan areas and the sources we cover in our database, visit our data coverage map and select the metro area: https://www.backgroundchecks.com/our-data/coverage-map
When you need to develop the highest level of confidence in your search for any sources of local criminal records, you should look further back and search for records in any county your candidate lived in previously. To help you generate this list, we just our SSN trace functionality to recommend a list of counties. Read more about how that works here: https://www.backgroundchecks.com/learning-center/auto-recommended-jurisdictions
We offer several options for adding county searches to your background check process. You could select to order a county courthouse search directly, separate from other screening products. However, you can also choose between two options with our Instant Criminal+ Packages. In the first option, you can add a search for the one county in which your candidate currently or most recently lived. The second option expands the search to include all counties of residence for the last seven years. Based on what your job role or state law requires, you can select the level of detail that best aligns with your needs.