IMPORTANT INFORMATION
We Do Not Provide Federal, Civil, Property, UCC, Or Bankruptcy Searches.
Phoenix Research reserves the right to update it's pricing on an as needed basis.
Fees and charges are subject to change without notice. Your offices will be updated
as quickly as possible to the ever changing Court structure.
TIME KEEPING: Phoenix Research Inc. has a daily business cut off time of 5:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.All Search requests received before this time will be entered into our system for processing the following day.Search requests received after the cut off time are posted for next day's business. (Minimum 12 hour delay)
CANCELLATIONS: Requests may be canceled up until 5:00 PM on the day the request is made.
WORK STATUS: Unless otherwise specified, Daily Status Reports are provided to all clients with search requests in progress. These reports verify receipt of requests on the date submitted, the current status of requests previously submitted, and include notation of potential delay on specific requests if applicable. (Please review these reports)
SCOPE & JURISDICTION: A standard time frame of seven years (7) is used for each search conducted. Requests for information beyond the standard seven-year scope
will be delayed and additional per year fees are assessed. Unless otherwise specifically restricted by local ordinance, State law, or Federal statute, all search search requests submitted are conducted at the County Seat of each county requested.
A $2.00 fee per year will be assessed for all requests outside the standard scope. Quoted turnaround time will not apply to these requests. There will be delays.
PRESCREENING: Search requests submitted with instructions to "get copies" of specific case numbers from Non-County Seat courts, and/or for detail on subjects not previously searched by Phoenix is defined as "Pre-Screening" Our quoted Turn-Time of 48 to 72 hours will not apply to these requests, ***see COPIES below***
* COPIES: Phoenix Research is not a document retrieval company.
Requests for copies are assessed an additional $35.00 per case for the search if the information is available and documentation is returned. Additionally; Per page Copy costs are reimbursable to this office - $1.00 per page. Copies of a "COMPLETE CASE FILE" from arrest, through trial & disposition, and including any after sentence information, should always be ordered specifically through a Document Retrieval Company.
Please weigh this decision carefully.
TRAFFIC: Traffic related information is reported only if it appears in the Felony or Misdemeanor criminal indices. We do not search separate traffic indices.
DUPLICATES: Duplicated requests submitted other than same day, are your responsibility and will be billed.
Hyphenated Surnames are searched as submitted and not searched separately
A.K.A’s or Maiden names are also separate search requests and will be billed accordingly.
* DISPUTED RESULTS: For disputed "NO RECORD" results:
We will verify all information originally submitted, and re-check the subject at no additional cost. If the re-check returns the same result, you will be billed for a second search. A second re-check request will require the following information; Case number, Arrest date, and Arresting agency. If the second re-check returns the same result, you will be billed for that search as well. Case#, Date, and Agency provided for a second recheck will often direct the search to a Non-County Seat court. Case information revealed, as a result of this additional information will NOT constitute a Missed Record for original request. Non-County seat court search requests (if available) will be delayed and invoiced as a separate search.* For Criminal records attributed to and / or disputed by an applicant: Please verify the identifying information provided to this office, and note how Phoenix verified the report. If the identifying information matches what you provided, and it is still disputed, a second search will be conducted and copies will be requested from the court of jurisdiction at no additional cost. If the re-check returns the same result you will be billed for a second search as well as copy costs. If the information is still disputed, please direct the subject of the search to immediately contact the clerk of court office in the jurisdiction where the search was conducted to clear up any possible discrepancies in their criminal index system.
BILLING: Invoicing is based on submission date, - NOT completion date. All invoices received from this office are clearly marked "Net 30" No additional search requests will be processed if invoices are not paid within 45 days of invoice date. If your account is frozen due to an invoice being over 45 days old, all outstanding invoices, regardless of age must be brought current before any additional requests will be processed.
Complete identifying information should always be provided whenever possible. This should include: full name including full middle name, social security number, and date of birth. Social security number retrace does not require authorization.
Case files ordered from any jurisdiction can delay a search request by a minimum of 24 hours. In some counties throughout the U.S., this delay could be as long as two weeks or longer. Older criminal cases revealed during a search are often lacking the basic identifiers required to provide a complete report and actual case files must be de-archived for review. To help avoid this delay, please provide complete identifying information on each subject.
Some counties will only allow public records research to be performed on specified days of the week. In many counties, there is no public record access at all, and an "in person" request must be submitted to a member of the court clerks staff to be searched at their discretion. In those jurisdictions where access is limited to court personnel only, we are limited to the information as provided or lack thereof by the clerk. This includes "No Record Found", and "Name Match Only" as well.
Many rural counties are not computerized and all public record research must be conducted through the use of docket books, index card files, and ledgers with handwritten entries of record information. Docket books, ledgers, and journal entries are often written illegibly and may cause delays while information is verified. Case information contained in index card file systems is also often illegible and is frequently misfiled in the wrong year, under the wrong name, or missing entirely.
A limited number of statewide searches are available through this office for those clients who insist on this type of search as an option. (You are not providing "due diligence" if you rely on the information contained in a statewide search as the sole basis of your hiring decision) Not all states have a statewide search available and we do not provide all that are. The amount of detailed information contained in statewide reports varies wildly from state to state. If statewide searches are an option for you, we recommend a county level search as follow-up verification for any case information returned in a statewide report to remain in compliance with current F.C.R.A. regulations.
Thank You for your business!
