{"id":4760,"date":"2011-10-24T18:09:30","date_gmt":"2011-10-24T22:09:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=4760"},"modified":"2011-10-24T18:09:30","modified_gmt":"2011-10-24T22:09:30","slug":"preliminary-investigation-searching-state-and-local-court-systems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=4760","title":{"rendered":"Preliminary Investigation: Searching state and local court systems"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the discovery of secret things and in the investigation of hidden causes, stronger reasons are obtained from sure experiments and demonstrated arguments than from probable conjectures and the opinions of philosophical speculators of the common sort. \u2013 William Gilbert, De Magnete<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Your case\u2014and any cases you might dig up involving your prospective defendant (hereinafter “PD”)\u2014may not be federal. You\u2019ll need to get into your state and local court system, too.<\/p>\n

It took me a couple of years working for lawyers to grasp the pyramid structure of the New York State court system. There’s no point in describing it here, especially since, for these investigative purposes, you may not be searching the New York State court system. What you will be searching is court records in states your PD lived in, worked in, or was born in.<\/p>\n

So you\u2019ll need the state site address for what, in New York at least, is called the Unified Court System. From this site\u2014www.courts.state.ny.us<\/a>\u2014you can search through every damn court in the state.<\/p>\n

Each state court system may have a somewhat different site address. Ohio, for instance, is www.sconet.state.oh.us<\/a>. Get the full address by googling “state court” + “[name of state]”. But you knew that.<\/p>\n

Let’s stick to my home state, with the sense that each state\u2019s court system will be sort of similar. Each will have a web site but each will be organized and loaded differently.<\/p>\n

The wealth of information on the New York state court database is amazing. And, amazingly, is written for us laymen. You can search for millions of items, some of which will be useful later (if you can remember where you saw them, a problem even I have).<\/p>\n

Once you\u2019re on the state system\u2019s home page and have further selected a county in which you want to search, find \u201cCase Information.\u201d In New York State you\u2019ll see two possible links\u2014Notice to the Bar & Rules and Supreme Court Records On-Line Library (\u201cSCROLL\u201d). Click on SCROLL; up comes a captcha panel asking you to copy some letters and\/or numbers into a blank box. Do so. Click “submit.”<\/p>\n

Now you\u2019re in the database. There are several search possibilities. The ones you want are \u201cPlaintiff\u201d and \u201cDefendant.\u201d Put your PD’s name in (last name, then first name), and search. If you don\u2019t get anything immediately, try just the last name. And try both “Plaintiff” and “Defendant” sections. If it\u2019s a corporation or company, try whatever variety of names you can think up.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll have to experiment with other state systems to see how much you can get into but since our courts and records are\u2014or should be\u2014open to the public, you should, at the least, be able to feed in the name of the person or company you\u2019re searching for.<\/p>\n

And do play around in local courts which might be called “municipal,” or “city.” Leave no court unturned!<\/p>\n

Again, if you find a case in which your PD is named, read through the complaint. If you get excited, print it out. And while you’re at it, if your PD has a professional degree, search out his status in the state where he’s presumably licensed to practice.<\/p>\n

Once while searching for a financial adviser I\u2019d met and immediately distrusted and disliked, I\u2019d searched the courts for him and found a contentious divorce. It wasn\u2019t what I was looking for\u2014fraud, for example\u2014but it satisfied my need to know this guy wasn\u2019t universally admired. Since the guy was also a lawyer, I checked his registration, which was in an upstate court. So I searched that court, too. (Then I went further and delved into the half-ass “professional association” these characters called “financial advisors” invented for themselves. That’s where I found juice.)<\/p>\n

And if the state you’re searching in divides civil from criminal cases, hey, search the criminal cases, too. Who knows what you’ll find?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the discovery of secret things and in the investigation of hidden causes, stronger reasons are obtained from sure experiments and demonstrated arguments than from probable conjectures and the opinions of philosophical speculators of the common sort. \u2013 William Gilbert, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1175],"tags":[155,6,258,362,444,436,443],"class_list":["post-4760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-facts-of-life","tag-credit-checks","tag-experienced-plaintiff","tag-fraud","tag-internet-investigations","tag-investigations","tag-law-and-the-courts","tag-state-court-systems"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t