June 2015
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Federal Statutes including the
FDPCA and
Gramm Leach Bliley
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Persons:
◦ Name and/or Address for Service of Process
◦ Assets to enforce a judgment
◦ Information on clients, opposing parties, witnesses,
experts
 Criminal backgrounds
 Civil cases
 General information
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Owner identities
Agent for service
Financial stability/assets
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Government sites—Free, but some limits for
online searching
Private sites—Limited information free—but
largely fee-based
◦ Genealogy sites especially popular
 Membership usually required
WestlawNext
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View Westlaw Directory
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Value of Property
Foreclosure Information
Ownership of Property/liens
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Information sometimes needed for litigation
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◦ Who do you sue
◦ Is it worth it to sue
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Assessor’s Office (Tax records)
Recorder’s Office (ownership/liens)
Private sites (value)
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Search Systems
(http://www.searchsystems.net)
Portico
http://indorgs.virginia.edu/portico/assesso
rs.html
SCCounty: https://www.sccassessor.org
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SC County—Online searching
http://www.clerkrecordersearch.org/
◦ Official documents
◦ Need grantor/grantee or APN (get from tax
assessor records)
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http://www.zillow.com/
http://www.trulia.com/
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www.unclaimed.org
www.Missingmoney.com
http://www.uspto.gov/ (Patents,
trademarks)
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Google (also images, groups, blogs)
Yahoo
Bing
Pipl.com
Dogpile (http://www.dogpile.com/
Yippy (http://www.yippy.com/)
DuckDuckGo (https://duckduckgo.com/)
BRB Publications
(http://brbpublications.com/freeresources/
pubrecsitesStates.aspx)
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www.rootsweb.ancestry.com
www.blackbookonline.info
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For phone and address
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◦ Anywho.com
◦ Whitepages.com
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Make sure they are still alive!
◦ Social Security Death Index (google) or
https://familysearch.org/search
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www.birthdatabase.com
www.whitepages.com Telephone Number,
address, reverse directory, and map to
address
www.zabasearch.com Address & Map
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California:
◦ http://kepler.sos.ca.gov
◦ www.ptsearch.sos.ca.gov (search for ebay)
◦ Miscellaneous licensing sites
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Federal
◦ EDGAR (SEC) <http://www.sec.gov/>
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http://www.brbpublications.com/prs/searchfi
rms.aspx
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www.uspto.gov
www.copyright.gov
www.sec.gov
www.hhs.gov
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Government Sites:
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Pacer.gov (federal court documents)
State courts (California not centralized)
Recorded documents (by county in California)
Agency Sites
 EDGAR (SEC) <http://www.sec.gov/>
 Sec’y of State, CA< http://www.sos.ca.gov/>
 http://kepler.sos.ca.gov/
◦ Various Licensing Agencies (Medical, Legal,
Contractor etc.
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Need to register
◦ Free
◦ May need credit card
◦ Information from all the federal courts
 Dockets
 Documents
 Case name search
◦ Let’s Search for Barry Bonds
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Courts.ca.gov—has link to all counties
◦ Under Courts on homepage
◦ Also information statewide on appellate/supreme
court
◦ Santa Clara County—online information
 Civil cases: http://www.sccaseinfo.org/
 Other Counties: Domain Web (often a fee)