This post starts with a long list of OSINT tools but there is an actual post afterwards to please continue to scroll down.
OSINT Tools of Interest:
https://www.courtlistener.com/ - CourtListener is a free legal research website containing millions of legal opinions from federal and state courts. With CourtListener, lawyers, journalists, academics, and the public can research an important case, stay up to date with case law as it develops, or do deep analysis using our raw data.
https://www.judyrecords.com/ - judyrecords is a 100% free nationwide search engine that lets you instantly search hundreds of millions of United States court cases and lawsuits.
https://www.docketalarm.com/ - Dockets are at the heart of many legal workflows, e.g., litigation strategy, calendaring, research, business development, and calculating legal risk. Docket Alarm's aim is to provide coverage for every litigation docket, with relevant information extracted and made actionable.
https://unicourt.com/ - UniCourt provides access to the complete set of civil and criminal federal court records - it is a free alternative to PACER (the fee-based database of federal court records)
https://violationtracker.goodjobsfirst.org/ - a wide-ranging database on corporate misconduct.
https://www.osha.gov/ords/imis/establishment.html - search to locate OSHA enforcement inspections by establishment name
https://court-scraper.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ - I am sorry to say that I have not yet tried out or created a guide for this Python tool but it appears very promising
https://openpolicedata.streamlit.app/ - aims to make it easier to access and analyze police data for 425+ incident-level datasets for about 4865 police agencies. Types of data include traffic stops, use of force, officer-involved shootings, and complaints.
https://www.bop.gov/mobile/find_inmate/byname.jsp - federal inmate search (states have individual search databases)
Find someone’s current and past addresses:
(most of these are just different versions of the same thing, but the first tool on the list is different)
Publicaccountability.org – another tool for finding someone's current and past addresses based on actual records
The following are a list of standard “People-Search Websites” (PSW)
fastpeoplesearch.com – searching for people and their addresses and their phone numbers.
These sites also do an amazing job of correlating data to find spouses, family members, former cohabitants (parents, roommates, former romantic partners).
You can search by name, address, phone numbers, and in some of these you can search by email address.
cyberbackgroundchecks.com
thatsthem.com
advancedbackgroundchecks.com
searchpeoplefree.com
Where to find the local court databases:
Google is actually the easiest. Just google the county name and the phrase “court records”.
You can also go to the county government website which will have a section for the courts. There will be a subsection for “case information” that tells you how to search court records.
Many states have a single database that includes all of the counties’ court records.
publicrecords.netronline.com/ – this is a database listing the websites for county governments public records – especially the county appraiser or assessor, which have property records
https://www.brbpublications.com/ – finds public record databases
Intro
Court records are a bit of a mystery to most people and surprisingly, every OSINT guide I’ve found thus far.
Most OSINT advice on court records completely miss the most important source of case information: The County-level government databases that are literally the primary source and has all cases and the best most detailed data on each case ranging from criminal, civil, law suits, traffic stops,…
Let’s get into what they are and how to find them. If you are looking at a specific person, it is important to know where they’ve lived in the past so that you know which county courts you should search their name in.
Okay let’s get started.
County Court Systems:
While there are many courts with jurisdiction over a given location in some form, you should start with the county level courts. Any cases involving your person of interest are most likely located at the county level. If you have limited time, you can reasonably search only the county courts.
Each county court system will have a database where you should be able to search your person by name. The county circuit and district courts will entail cases ranging from criminal and civil cases as well as traffic violations.
The easiest way to find the relevant database is to google the county name and the phrase “court records”. Alters you can go to the county government website which will have a section for the courts. There will be a subsection for “case information” that tells you how to search court records. Many states have a single database that includes all of the counties’ court records.
In those states you can still begin at the county government websites which will inform you about the state-wide database.
When you find the database you should make sure you search the circuit and district courts.
Police records;
If you find that your person was involved in a criminal case, you can lookup police records to see details of the events that led up to the charges. Once again the easiest way to find the police records is to google the county name, the word “police records”, and one of the following phrases “dispatch incidents”, “daily arrests”, “summary of arrests”.
Most police records are not publicly available. However , the local police generally publish some form of daily summary of incidents and archive them in a list or database on their website.
Unfortunately this information is usually retained in a manner requiring you to search for incidents based on the date, vice a specific person’s name. If you find court records for a criminal case, the records should include the date and general location so that you have the information necessary to find the police record.
If you are willing to pay $15, you can use the website Broadcastify (broadcastify.com/listen/) to find the police radio broadcast related to the incident. This can be helpful but you should not assume it will provide relevant information. The website archives audio files of radio broadcasts for police and emergency services categorized by time, date, location, and service (police, firefighters, etc).
Inmate search:
If the incident resulted in the person being incarcerated you can look them up by name in various inmate databases. The results will have the inmate’s name, serial number, and date of past or scheduled release.
All bankruptcy cases are heard in federal courts which can be accessed with PACER (see below)
Additional websites:
BKdata (https://bkdata.com/research/) is a private database that holds information on bankruptcy cases. It will charge a fee for full access but the free search is a great place to start if you want to find out if your person or company ever filed for bankruptcy
Court Listener (courtlistener.com) will search court case information across several hundred jurisdictions throughout the United States. Results include opinions, oral arguments, financial disclosures, and RECAP case files.
PACER (https://pcl.uscourts.gov/pcl/) charged a small fee but is the official database for all federal cases. You should always check the RECAP records (which are free versions of PACER records) in courtlistener.com before using PACER.
Obtain Audio Recording of a Court Case (not free)
If you are doing in-depth research on a court case you have the option to get an audio recording of the court proceedings. I have consistently found information about a case from court room audio that was available nowhere else.
This process requires paying a fee and a bit of legwork.
To do so, first use the state or county case information database and do a name search for the defendant as described previously. This will bring you to the court case information
In this case the court is the Loudoun county circuit court.
The records are handled by the Clerk of the court which will have a website or section in the county court system’s website.
Here we can search for the defendant info to find the case and the record will give the information required by the form to identify the case and relevant information to input into the form for your request.
Here is an example of a case record;
Next, we could mail in the form but instead I decided to take the form and check ($55 for two days of audio recording) and then head to the court!
and finally…
I obtained a CD-Rom, which still exists apparently, with an mp3 file of the court room audio recording.
This led to a separate adventure to figure out how to get an mp3 off of a CD and onto a computer. The problem was solved by going to my local public library and asked for help. They had an old cheap cd rom drive (you can get your own online for a few bucks).
