Using These 20 Tips at lexis.com Public Records, You Can …
- Search just your results list and further refine your research
Use the Find field on your results screen. Enter search terms in the Find box and search with the terms in your results list, e.g., phone, address, etc. Some sources—those offering Boolean searching—also offer a FOCUS feature field so you can search within all documents in your results.
- Find a range of addresses—even a city block—in one search
ENTER: 300,399 elm in the street address field. That will find addresses in that range, and records with that address range should appear first in your results, followed by other records that meet the radius criteria, including other addresses on that street.
- Use an age range to refine your person search
Looking for John Smith Jr.? If you know the approximate age, you can select an Age Range (1-100) on your Comprehensive Person Report or Locate a Person (Nationwide) search form. Separate “juniors” from “seniors” quickly.
- Locate employment information
Employment Locator search puts you in touch with more than one billion records—current and/or past employment records—and links 135 million unique individuals to businesses nationwide. (This is not an all-inclusive resource with consistent, nationwide coverage, but it can be helpful in finding some hard-to-find employment information.)
- Uncover the owner of a very small business
The Locate a Business (Nationwide) search can find the addresses, phone numbers and executives/owners of very small businesses as well as major corporations. LexisNexis public records offer more than 900 million business records covering 381 million unique businesses.
- Pinpoint a registered agent
Select the Corporation Filings form and click the Find Registered Agents box. Then fill in the information you know. (Or use Terms & Connectors with theREGIS AGENT segment.)
- Enter the wrong zip code, city—and even state—and still find the right address
That’s because with many of the major finder forms—Comprehensive Person Report, Comprehensive Location Report, Find a Person (Nationwide) and Statewide Public Records search—you automatically search a 30-mile radius around the address you enter, even across state lines. Change that default—choose from 0 to 100 miles—with the Radius field on these forms.
- Search all available public records from the state—in one search
That’s what the Statewide Public Records Person Search and the Statewide Public Records Business Search do. Note: LexisNexis law school subscribers have limited access to Public Records resources.
- Limit your real-property results by sales price—or sales price range. (And there’s more!)
Click Terms & Connectors on the Real Property search form. You can search for a specific sales price—or loan, tax or land-value amount. Or use a greater than or less than value to find a range of sales prices, land values, loan or tax amounts.
- Use a prior address to find a person’s current whereabouts
Don’t know your targeted individual’s current address? If you have a prior address—even just a state—add it to the Comprehensive Person Report, Locate a Person (Nationwide) or Statewide Public Records Person Search form in the previous address fields. Enter any other information you know about the person.
- Uncover the right company with a FEIN number
Find the Federal Employer Identification Number with the Comprehensive Business Report, Locate a Business (Nationwide), the Statewide Public Records Business Search and Corporate Filings search. You can search with this identifier, e.g., 52-1471842, on these search forms as well. Or enter this number in the Find or FOCUS fields on your results screen to refine your results. Need to find the company’s FEIN number? Just select the FEIN Search form.
- View a “site map” of lexis.com Public Records search forms
As you view any public records search form, click the All Searches tab. Get a list of—and links to—all available lexis.com public records search forms. Browse, click and go.
- Find Canadian phone numbers
Here’s a new resource! Select the Canadian Phone Number search form and tap into more than 12 million Canadian records covering all 10 provinces and three territories.
- Identify a phone number as cellular or unpublished (even if no one is associated with that number)
Go to the Alternate Phone Number form—and get access to more than 150 million phone numbers, including 56 million cellular numbers just added. Search by name, address—or phone number alone. Results are identified as possibly cellular or dedicated access (“land line”). Even if no person is associated with the phone number, the phone company is also identified so you can investigate further. By the way, the Phone Lookup Report search form also retrieves unpublished, dedicated-access (land) lines.
- Expand your name results to include variations—or compress your results to a certain spelling
Your choice. The person name fields of many of the public records search forms include spelling variation/nickname options. On the Comprehensive Person Report, Locate a Person (Nationwide) or Statewide Public Records Person Search forms, you can also use the Strict Search box. Check it and your results will be limited to the name form you entered.
- Enter a nickname and find the proper name
Click this box on the Comprehensive Person Report, Locate a Person (Nationwide) or Statewide Public Records Person Search forms and you can find an individual with a nickname—even if the nickname is not listed on every record. So enter Thomas, click the Find nicknames of first name box and retrieve Thomas, Tom, Tommy, Tommie, Scooter, etc.
- Need to search public records with segments (fields)? OK!
Many of the public records search forms at lexis.com—Bankruptcy, Real Property, Judgments & Liens, Corporate Filings, Voter Registrations, etc.—allow Terms & Connector searching. That includes Segment Searching! Click the Terms & Connectors button on these forms and get a drop-down list of available segments for those records and a field to add search words. So refine your Real Property search by property address, your bankruptcy search by debtor or creditor, etc.
- Searching with a common name? Narrow with previous address or state, alias or relative
John Smith? Jane Jones? On the most comprehensive person search forms, you have the option of adding additional information to home in on the right person—details you might know such as aliases, previous addresses and relatives.
- Filing Jurisdiction—Find it!
On some of the filings search forms— Bankruptcy, Judgments & Liens and Criminal Records—you can limit your search to specific filing jurisdictions, i.e., states.
- Get alerts—but only on the information you need
Both the Comprehensive Person Search and the Comprehensive Business Search offer alert updating. Just click the Save as Alert link. But there’s more! You can be updated for any change to the report—or only if specifics sections change, i.e., if the person filed for bankruptcy, moved or purchased property, etc.
