A background check is four separate jobs that get sold as one. Identify the person, pull the records that exist under that identity, verify that the records actually belong to them, and write down what could not be confirmed. Consumer platforms do the first two. The value is almost entirely in the second two.
What a licensed investigator does that software does not
Software matches on name, age and address history, then returns everything it hits. An investigator starts by pinning the identity down: date of birth, address chronology, known relatives and associates, prior names. Only then do the records get pulled, because a record retrieved before the identity is settled is just a guess with a citation. Then the records get read rather than listed. A charge is not a conviction. A filed lien is not an outstanding one. A dismissed case reported as an arrest is how a person loses a job over nothing. Reading dispositions is unglamorous and it is most of the work.
Where a background search legally stops
No licensed investigator can obtain bank balances, telephone call records, sealed or expunged records, credit reports, or medical records. Those are protected by federal and state law and access runs through a subpoena, a court order, or the subject’s own written authorization. Any service implying otherwise is telling you how it treats the law in general.
Order a licensed background investigation. Prepared by a Florida-licensed investigator, agency A3400127, and documented to evidentiary standards.
Written by Joshua Goldberg, Florida private investigator license C3400073, owner of Insight Investigative Group, LLC, agency license A3400127, Bradenton, Florida.
Related: background checks and published rates.
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Background investigations are $175, $600 or $1,200 depending on depth.
Call and a licensed investigator answers, day or night, including weekends. Written inquiries are answered within 48 hours.