Search Edgar County Illinois Criminal Records
Searching for criminal records in Edgar County in the state of Illinois
Once a person has been convicted of a criminal offence in the US, then they will have a criminal record for the rest of their life – unless the crime was committed when they were a minor, in which case these records are often expunged or removed. If you want to know if someone you are planning to employ or your new partner has a criminal record, then there are many ways that you can search for this kind of information within Edgar County in the state of Illinois. Some of the information in these records is restricted, meaning it is not open to the general public, but if you have a good reason for seeing the official documents then you should at least be able to find out if someone has a criminal record and perhaps even what crime they committed. It might just be the details that are missing, such as the names of the victims, where the crime took place and other aspects of the police investigation or the trial itself. If you are searching for someone’s criminal record in Edgar County, make sure you carry out an exhaustive and comprehensive search before taking any action, especially if you are an employer refusing to employ someone on the grounds of a criminal records search that then turns out to be incorrect could land you in a lot of trouble!
If you are planning to employ someone in Edgar County and want to carry out a criminal records check, you might need their permission to do so, unless the job involves contact with children or access to sensitive documents. If that person refuses the permission, you are not allowed to discriminate against them because of that, even though their refusal might seem suspicious. If you are unsure what your rights are as an employer to check into the background of your employees, then the staff at your local county courthouse will be able to advise you as to what information you can or cannot see. If you live in Edgar County in the state of Illinois and are wanting to check criminal records for personal reasons, it could be even harder for you to get access to the information you want.
It might be easier for you to use an online search, either through the local police or court websites themselves or through a commercial website that pulls together information from many different sources across the country. As long as you know the name of the person, and perhaps their date of birth or previous addresses, you should be able to come up with details of their criminal record – if they have one, of course! These commercial sites often charge a fee if you want a full and detailed report of the information they have, while if the search returns no results you will usually be charged nothing. Although you might think that someone has lived in Edgar County all their lives, these national sites can allow you to search nationally, to check that you haven’t been lied to about other aspects of their past too.
The archives and offices of your local county courthouse in Edgar County is where the original copies of many police and court documents are kept, most of which have now been transferred to computer systems to make searching easier. If you are researching your family tree and are interested in historic documents, then you may just have to search through these older, paper records – ask for the courthouse staff to give you some help if you don’t know where to start. They will be happy to give you some advice and may even carry out the search on your behalf if you live a long way from Edgar County or the state of Illinois. They will probably charge you a small fee for this service, however, and you should be prepared to wait a while for the results. Carrying out your own online search could end up proving quicker and cheaper.
You can always search local newspapers in Edgar County too, as many of these will report local court cases and their verdicts. Even the smallest newspapers have their own websites which make searching for recent reports very simple, though the information might not be completely accurate and should probably not be used as an employee background check! Older newspapers are often kept on file at their own offices or local libraries in Edgar County if you are interested in finding out about older cases.