| It wasn't many years ago that all background | | | | your own home. Making these searches even |
| checks and public records research done by | | | | more appealing is the all-in-one characteristics of |
| civilians was an entirely manual process, requiring a | | | | searches: because these databases are heavily |
| trip to the county records office, a separate form | | | | cross-referenced, it's a simple matter to build a |
| for each public record to be accessed, a several | | | | complete background on anyone, by seeding your |
| day wait, and a research fee for every document | | | | search with as little as a name and optionally a |
| produced. | | | | geographic region. |
| While simple to perform, these searches took | | | | The databases often combine hundreds of millions |
| quite a bit of time, effort, and money. | | | | of records, including birth records, death records, |
| Complicating the matter was the fact that | | | | property records, marriage licenses, contractor |
| records are strewn about many differing filings, so | | | | licenses, criminal records, court records, military |
| it was very difficult to get a clear profile on one | | | | records, and more into one report. |
| person. Additionally, because people tend to move | | | | You would think that this type of access would |
| at least a few times during their lives, records | | | | be expensive, but because fixed costs are stable |
| might be dispersed among many different records | | | | and overhead is low, you only need to pay for |
| offices. | | | | access to the database, which will run from $20 |
| To make this process easier, people often hired | | | | to $40 depending on the service and length of |
| investigation agencies to perform their background | | | | agreement. For example, some services will offer |
| checks, and those agencies would consult their | | | | 5 years of access for $40 or a one-time search |
| proprietary or licensed records database to | | | | for $20. This amount is equivalent to requesting |
| perform their investigations. | | | | two or three records from the local courthouse, |
| Within the past several years, those databases | | | | so it pays itself off very quickly. |
| have been opened to the public, so not only can | | | | These online databases are wonderful for finding |
| you perform a search using the same tools that | | | | out anything on any number of people you want |
| investigation agencies use, but you can also do so | | | | for very little marginal cost. |
| quickly, inexpensively, and from the comfort of | | | | |