By Marcus Hochstetler
Can you find the following information in less than five minutes?
- Locate the company, organization or person using a known telephone number.
- Find a construction company in Seattle and determine whether this company has a worker's compensation liability account with the Department of Labor and Industry.
- Track down a witness to testify in a criminal case using a last known address.
Answering these questions in a short amount of time may be challenging for someone without the tools to do so. Public information found quickly can save time and money. Private investigators make it their livelihood to find such information for their clients.
When a person has seemingly disappeared and you must find them, to whom do you turn? You might invest in the services of a local investigator, which can be quite costly. You might also consider searching the Internet for databases that will yield public information on companies, people and their property. Before you resort to contacting A&E's Dog the Bounty Hunter, you could turn to the reference staff at the Law Library.
While I have stated in the past that you can't find it all on the Internet when it comes to historical legal information, in this case you probably can find what you are looking for with some time and determination at relatively low to no cost. Whether your case is a criminal or civil matter, the need for timely retrieval of basic information can be pivotal to the ultimate outcome.
If you want to find out how to perform the three tasks above in less than five minutes, you can sign up for one of our free skip-tracing classes, which are held in our Legal Resource Training Center. To find out when our next session will be, simply click on "Training Classes" at our Web site: www.kcll.org. In the meantime, if you need individual help on finding a company, a person or any public record, contact the reference staff at 206-296-0940 to find out where to look.
Marcus Hochstetler is the King County Law Librarian. Please direct comments or questions to him at 206-296-0940 or marcus.hochstetler@metrokc.gov.
