How are the U.S. Public Records collected?

U.S. Public Records are those documents compiled by various public offices and agencies which are made available to the general public. Examples of public records include real estate records, lien filings, business entity filings, lawsuit information and court dockets, court decisions and death records - most links are available on UsPublicRecords.com. Private or non-public information is not generally available from public records or commercial sources.

Non-public information includes data, which is protected from disclosure by law or by custom, such as medical records, employment records, tax returns and financial records. Non-public information links are not available on USPublicRecords.com Professional.

USPublicRecords.com has links to public record information providers that may be somewhat sensitive, e.g. criminal records, and you will asked to provide the use for the data so that we can monitor the usage.

Many individuals are curious to know how public record databases obtain literally millions of public record filings and if the databases are complete and accurate.

After filings are recorded at the official public office or agency, in most cases, the records are compiled by data entry specialists in an automated format at the various public filing locations. The public record information that is compiled is "indexed" information. "Indexed" means the full document will not be retrieved online, instead a snap-shot of the basic filing information is provided.

The process of keying or scanning millions of records as you can imagine is a rather cumbersome one. Once records are keyed, they are distributed to public record providers via program models (i.e., directories, databases, and public records search engines).

However, every day additional filings are recorded at official public record offices or agencies in jurisdictions throughout the U.S., so the compilation process is a never-ending cycle.

Depending on the US Public Records databases and directories, most public record material is updated daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly. Updates include new filing information, changes to existing records, deletions, etc.