Research Guide

PACER is the database of civil, criminal, and bankruptcy cases in federal trial and appeals courts. You can search the PACER case index by case number or party name, and and you can also search bankruptcy filings by the debtor’s Social Security Number or EIN (all bankruptcies are filed in federal court). In most federal cases, all court records are publicly available through PACER, although some records may be sealed, and older records are not online. After searching, access court records by clicking on the case link from the results page and then run the docket report. When you run the docket report, set the time frame to include the entire length of the case. You can use court records to find an individual’s associates, litigation adversaries, assets and other information. To understand a case, begin by reading the complaint or charging document, any opinions and orders on motions to dismiss, any answers filed by defendants and any records related to the resolution of the case.

Investment advisers are finance professionals who manage funds for investors. They are often called fund managers, and depending on the types of investments they make, they might call their funds hedge funds, private equity funds or venture capital funds. Fund managers with at least $150 million in assets under management must register with the Securities and Exchange Commission and file a Form ADV, which includes information on the names of the funds that they manage, the values of these funds and the officers and beneficial owners of the investment adviser. Use this site to search for registered investment advisers, disclosure events such as previous criminal convictions of officers, and associates of an individual who has been an investment adviser.

Using an individual’s known address history as well as their professional and educational history, you should have a list of counties in which the individual has lived, worked, or studied. These should be the same counties where you search for any documents naming the individual at the local Recorder of Deeds. Consider including certain neighboring counties in your searches if they form part of a larger metropolitan area. For example, a candidate who lived and worked in Cambridge, Massachusetts, might be party to civil cases in Middlesex County, which includes Cambridge, or Suffolk County, which includes neighboring Boston. In some jurisdictions, there is no online access to state-level court records, and in these cases, you may need to order onsite research or visit the court yourself. The structure of the courts varies from state to state, and the nature and availability of court records also vary from state to state and often from county to county. Briefly familiarize yourself with the structure of the courts in any jurisdiction where the individual has lived, worked, or studied. Focus first on trial courts, or first-instance courts, as opposed to appeals courts. Some states have a single, unified level of trial courts which hear all cases. For example, in California the Superior Court is the first-instance court for all cases. In other states, there is a divided trial court structure, with courts of “general jurisdiction” hearing felony criminal cases and high-value civil cases and lower courts that hear misdemeanor criminal cases and small claims civil cases. For example, in New York the trial court of general jurisdiction is named the Supreme Court, and there are a number of lower-level trial courts that hear small claims cases, misdemeanor cases, and landlord-tenant cases.

Many states, but not all, provide a publicly accessible, statewide criminal history database. Other states only grant individuals access to their own criminal histories or require third parties to have the subject’s signed consent. Determine which of the jurisdictions where the individual has lived offer a statewide criminal history check and run these searches wherever possible.

TinEye is a reverse image search engine. When uploading an image, you can find out where it came from, how it’s being used, if modified versions of the image exist, or if there are higher resolution versions.

The U.S. Tax Court is where taxpayers can petition for adjudication of disputes with the IRS. Search for any petitions that an individual has filed in this court and review any available records for information on any tax disputes involving the individual.

Valital is a paid resource that searches publicly available information. Using it, you can extract, filter and analyze online media on people and organizations you’re researching. It creates a well-organized clip search that makes it easy to know where to start with your research.

Use Yahoo Image Search to find visuals such as photos, vectors, screenshots and icons.

Yandex is a suite of internet search tools hosted by Yandex, LLC, a Russian technology company. This site indexes networks and pages on the internet outside of the West and is useful when searching for information about individuals in Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia.