Nowadays your Internet-connected computer makes literally billions of US public records available to you, accessible by means of a few well-directed mouse clicks. What's more, all this valuable information is completely free.

This minor miracle of technology empowers you to make informed decisions in all aspects of your life, based on accurate government-maintained and government-supplied information that was all but inaccessible a generation ago -- except to a clerks, lawyers and private investigators, all of whom had to personally visit county courthouses to dig up the information they needed.

Think I'm exaggerating? Take a look at the types of info you can now glean online from a free public records search --

At the State level...

• Corporation Records

• Criminal Records

• Federal Tax Liens

• Fictitious or Assumed Names

• Incarceration Records

• Limited Liability Company Records

• Limited Partnership Records

• State Tax Liens

• Trademark, Trade Name

• Uniform Commercial Code Filings

• Vessel Records

• Workers' Compensation Records

• Sales Tax Registrations

• Vehicle & Ownership Records

• Death Records

• Sexual Offender Records

• Divorce Records

• Marriage Records

• State Investigated Accident Reports

• Birth Records

• Driver Records

• Some Types of Occupational Licenses

At the County Level...

• Uniform Commercial Code records (also available at State level)

• Tax Liens (also available at State level)

• Real Estate and Tax Assessor records

• County Court Records (both civil and criminal)

• Voter Registrations (accessibility varies)

• Vital Records (also available at State level)

At the Federal Level...

• Federal Court Records

• EDGAR Corporate Filings

• Military Records

• Bankruptcy Records

• A vast amount of demographic/economic/regulatory data available through Federal agency websites

The above lists are not exhaustive but merely hint at the types and quantity of public records online you can access for free. So why would you want to? A few good reasons come to mind, such as: background checks on potential business associates; research pertaining to investments; trademarks/patents research; real estate investment due diligence; determining a boyfriend's or girlfriend's true marital status; people searching; determining a potential partner's financial viability; determining whether a professional person's license is in good standing; finding out if a supplier has been sued; and many more.

Public Records Basics

It's important to understand there's a difference between public records and publicly-available information. The term "public records" pertains mainly to records maintained by government agencies that are freely available to the public, like real estate records and bankruptcy records. On the other hand your phone book contains "publicly-available" information. Generally, this is information people have chosen to allow to be publicly-accessed, even though they don't have to. If you want your address and phone number to remain private, you can refuse to let it be published in a phone book. But with public record info, you really don't have a choice - the government makes it public, period.

Similarly, notice that some information is always private, like medical records and credit information. You can't go onto a government website and find out if somebody has certain medical or psychiatric problems, and you can't get a copy of their credit report without their written consent. To do so violates the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which Uncle Sam, by the way, takes very seriously. Even if you find an online information broker who promises to provide you with somebody's private information, you're wise to pass. Remember how much trouble Patricia Dunn, the chairperson of Hewlett-Packard, got herself into about five years ago by hiring a hotshot private eye to look into boardroom leaks, which involved investigating the personal lives of HP's board members? You don't need that kind of trouble.

So it's very important to understand the difference between public and private information, and there's also one other point to be aware of: jurisdictions (counties and states) are not uniform in their regulations regarding access to records. For example, in some states you can access people's driving records with relative ease (Colorado); in others you can't (California). Some states regard criminal records as public (Texas); others don't (Massachusetts). You have to adhere to the regulations of the jurisdiction where you're accessing the records.

Conducting a Free Public Records Search

The most direct way to find the public records you need is to search via Google or other such search engine for the federal, state or county website pertaining to the jurisdiction that you need to research. For example if you're interested in searching marriage records in Hamilton County, Ohio, just enter that county's name into Google – which will take you directly to their website. Then just click on "public records" (or similar link) on the home page to begin your research.

If you haven't utilized public records in your business or personal decision-making in the past, you'll be amazed at the wealth of information freely available to you these days – give it a try!