Investigators Tools
Records
Court records search

Court records, criminal history and sanctions

Search US court cases by name, read federal dockets for free, check inmate and sex offender registries, and screen names against sanctions and exclusion lists.

Picked and checked by a licensed private investigator. Updated October 2026.

Try an example

Pick one to see the lookups for it, or paste your own above.

13 tools, free ones first

Each one opens the tool's own site. Free tools cost nothing; freemium tools show some results free and charge for the rest. Licensed PI items need a licensed investigator.

Free 9

judyrecordsFull-text search of hundreds of millions of US court casesjudyrecords.com CourtListener RECAPFree copies of federal dockets others bought on PACERcourtlistener.com NSOPWNational sex offender registrynsopw.gov BOP Inmate LocatorFederal inmatesbop.gov VINELinkState and county custody statusvinelink.com OFAC Sanctions SearchSanctioned people and companiessanctionssearch.ofac.treas.gov SAM.govDebarred federal contractorssam.gov OIG ExclusionsExcluded health care providersexclusions.oig.hhs.gov BRB PublicationsState-by-state directory of free public record sitesbrbpub.com

Freemium 3

PACEROfficial federal dockets, $0.10 a page; small quarterly totals waivedpacer.uscourts.gov UniCourtState and federal dockets; documents paidunicourt.com Docket AlarmDockets and alerts; documents paiddocketalarm.com

Licensed PI 1

Licensed investigator service: Multi-county criminal and civil sweepNeeds a licensed PI

What to expect

What you can find for free

State and federal court cases, searchable by full text
Free copies of federal dockets that others already bought
Federal inmates, and state and county custody status
The national sex offender registry
People and companies on sanctions, debarment and health care exclusion lists

Where free tools stop

There's no single free national criminal record search. Most criminal cases are in county courts, and many counties aren't online. A thorough criminal and civil check means searching each county where the person lived, which is what a licensed investigator does.

Tips

PACER waives its fees if you spend $30 or less in a quarter.
BRB Publications lists every state's free court and public record sites.