Court Data Collection Pros and Cons
ETA: I apologize for the weird two-headed fake cut. The info is the same behind each link.
I posted about the pros and cons of secret shopping a while ago. I also do court data collection, so I thought this post might be helpful to U.S. readers. Please keep in mind as you read that I live in a small island town (only 11,000 people on the entire road system). Conditions vary widely throughout the U.S. Before you commit to doing this type of work, study the information the company sends you and visit your local courthouse and recorder's office. Talk to a court clerk at the one and a recorder at the other to learn how their offices handle court data collection requests.
Please note: Like secret shopping, court data collection is a job market rife with scams. A legitimate company will hire you as an employee or independent contractor. In other words, they pay you. You may be expected to copy or print your own reporting forms, pay the postage if you report by mail, and cover other costs of doing business, but if the company demands money for a start-up package, it's a scam. The legitimate companies advertise in the Help Wanted section or through employment agencies. Never answer an unsolicited e-mail or click on a pop-up ad for this type of business. Any ad that promises big money is a scam no matter where it's published.
Court data collection (also known as records research and probably by a lot of other names) means finding information of public record and passing it along to credit bureaus, employment verification agencies, and other companies. I work for one credit bureau and one employment verification agency. (Actually, I have contracts with three employment verification agencies, but
the other two never have work for me to do. Oh well; such is small-town life.) Each company has hundreds of contractors nationwide. Following community guidelines, I will not name the companies I work for or otherwise provide referrals.
The credit bureau has me go to the courthouse regularly to read the dailies. These are copies of all recent judgments, satisfactions, etc. They are kept at the front desk for court data collectors, reporters, etc., to read and rotated into the trash every few weeks. If I find a civil or small claims judgment or satisfaction and the case fits the criteria on the credit bureau's list, I request the file from the court clerks. They pass it to me over the counter and I examine it before handing it back. The credit bureau wants the full legal name, address, and SSN of the debtor plus the case number, the name of the creditor, the amount owed, and the date of the judgment or satisfaction. I copy this information onto a form. Each page holds information for six cases. When I have a full page or more, I mail them to the credit bureau's office in Fresno, CA. (I'm in Alaska.) If there is a question, the records manager calls me. Most contractors with this company are paid by the hour for this type of work, but I have an older contract grandfathered in from one of the little agencies this credit bureau absorbed, so I get a flat fee of $25 per month. This works out to about $9 per hour. Out of this I pay for postage (first class), envelopes, paper, and ink. (I calculated that making my own form in Word and printing copies as needed was cheaper than photocopying the master they sent me to use.)
The employment verification agency does business by phone or e-mail, but prefers its own dumb-terminal program. I open this program every morning on my computer and up pops a list of names, dates of birth, and SSNs. The typical background check requests information on all criminal cases for the past seven years, one screenful of details per case. They prefer replies on the same or the next business day and start worrying after four business days. Luckily, a basic check for hits is not difficult. I simply go to the Web site for the Alaska court system and enter each name into their public database. This is enough to tell me if the person has any criminal history. If not, I can report this fact literally within minutes of receiving the search request. If there are hits, I have to examine the files at the courthouse to get the complete information. I write each case number on a sign-out sheet in the court clerk's office, then wait a few minutes while they pull the files for me (sometimes on paper, sometimes on microfilm). Then I copy the information I need by hand, take it home, and type it into the program. Each search earns me $7.00. This job has no incidental costs. A few search requests come with a request for docket copies, which I would have to pay for, but none of these has turned up any hits so far.
The credit bureau I work for used to have me do similar background checks with a focus on civil and small claims--and liens at the recorder's office--instead of criminal cases, but they don't ask local court data collectors to do this type of work anymore. The other credit bureaus may do things differently.
Now that you've read through the details, you may be asking yourself, is this job worth it? It depends on your situation. Pros: This is not hard work. The hours are reasonably flexible. $7.00 is not much, but it can add up if you get a lot of searches to run; I estimate that 80 percent of searches turn up no hits, giving you $7.00 for five minutes' work. $9.00 per hour for reading the dailies and writing on a form isn't bad either. Depending on the atmosphere at your courthouse, you may be able to bring your kids (with snacks, drinks, and something quiet to do; building a good working relationship with the court clerks is also a smart idea). Cons: Doing searches is not a regular, predictable source of income; the company only contacts you when one of their clients has a job or credit applicant who lives, or used to live, in your court district. If you're paid hourly for reading the dailies, your income will depend on who is taking whom to court. If you are expected to report online, you must have access to a secure computer. You can't cherry-pick assignments the way you can as a secret shopper. If you decline assignments regularly, you may lose your contract. If they're often late or an auditor finds errors, you may lose your contract. If your local courthouse is some distance away, you probably won't be reimbursed for the cost of getting there, and obviously you have to be able to get there when they're open.
How much money could you make doing this? I have been collecting court data for ten years and as best I recall, I have made a reportable amount of money from one of my contracts once. I net an average of $45.00 per month from the employment verification agency. I used to make the same from the credit bureau before they stopped asking local court data collectors to run background checks; now I make $25.00 per month from reading the dailies. If your local courthouse serves a bigger community and you are the only contractor in your area for a given company, you could stand to make a lot more. I don't know if you could turn it into a full-time job; that really depends on how easy it is to get information at your courthouse, how much business comes your way, and what other demands you have on your time.
In short, stay-at-home moms, retirees, and anyone else with a reasonably flexible schedule who lives within easy travel distance of a courthouse might want to look into this type of work as a supplement to their income, not as a primary source.
I posted about the pros and cons of secret shopping a while ago. I also do court data collection, so I thought this post might be helpful to U.S. readers. Please keep in mind as you read that I live in a small island town (only 11,000 people on the entire road system). Conditions vary widely throughout the U.S. Before you commit to doing this type of work, study the information the company sends you and visit your local courthouse and recorder's office. Talk to a court clerk at the one and a recorder at the other to learn how their offices handle court data collection requests.
Please note: Like secret shopping, court data collection is a job market rife with scams. A legitimate company will hire you as an employee or independent contractor. In other words, they pay you. You may be expected to copy or print your own reporting forms, pay the postage if you report by mail, and cover other costs of doing business, but if the company demands money for a start-up package, it's a scam. The legitimate companies advertise in the Help Wanted section or through employment agencies. Never answer an unsolicited e-mail or click on a pop-up ad for this type of business. Any ad that promises big money is a scam no matter where it's published.
Court data collection (also known as records research and probably by a lot of other names) means finding information of public record and passing it along to credit bureaus, employment verification agencies, and other companies. I work for one credit bureau and one employment verification agency. (Actually, I have contracts with three employment verification agencies, but
the other two never have work for me to do. Oh well; such is small-town life.) Each company has hundreds of contractors nationwide. Following community guidelines, I will not name the companies I work for or otherwise provide referrals.
The credit bureau has me go to the courthouse regularly to read the dailies. These are copies of all recent judgments, satisfactions, etc. They are kept at the front desk for court data collectors, reporters, etc., to read and rotated into the trash every few weeks. If I find a civil or small claims judgment or satisfaction and the case fits the criteria on the credit bureau's list, I request the file from the court clerks. They pass it to me over the counter and I examine it before handing it back. The credit bureau wants the full legal name, address, and SSN of the debtor plus the case number, the name of the creditor, the amount owed, and the date of the judgment or satisfaction. I copy this information onto a form. Each page holds information for six cases. When I have a full page or more, I mail them to the credit bureau's office in Fresno, CA. (I'm in Alaska.) If there is a question, the records manager calls me. Most contractors with this company are paid by the hour for this type of work, but I have an older contract grandfathered in from one of the little agencies this credit bureau absorbed, so I get a flat fee of $25 per month. This works out to about $9 per hour. Out of this I pay for postage (first class), envelopes, paper, and ink. (I calculated that making my own form in Word and printing copies as needed was cheaper than photocopying the master they sent me to use.)
The employment verification agency does business by phone or e-mail, but prefers its own dumb-terminal program. I open this program every morning on my computer and up pops a list of names, dates of birth, and SSNs. The typical background check requests information on all criminal cases for the past seven years, one screenful of details per case. They prefer replies on the same or the next business day and start worrying after four business days. Luckily, a basic check for hits is not difficult. I simply go to the Web site for the Alaska court system and enter each name into their public database. This is enough to tell me if the person has any criminal history. If not, I can report this fact literally within minutes of receiving the search request. If there are hits, I have to examine the files at the courthouse to get the complete information. I write each case number on a sign-out sheet in the court clerk's office, then wait a few minutes while they pull the files for me (sometimes on paper, sometimes on microfilm). Then I copy the information I need by hand, take it home, and type it into the program. Each search earns me $7.00. This job has no incidental costs. A few search requests come with a request for docket copies, which I would have to pay for, but none of these has turned up any hits so far.
The credit bureau I work for used to have me do similar background checks with a focus on civil and small claims--and liens at the recorder's office--instead of criminal cases, but they don't ask local court data collectors to do this type of work anymore. The other credit bureaus may do things differently.
Now that you've read through the details, you may be asking yourself, is this job worth it? It depends on your situation. Pros: This is not hard work. The hours are reasonably flexible. $7.00 is not much, but it can add up if you get a lot of searches to run; I estimate that 80 percent of searches turn up no hits, giving you $7.00 for five minutes' work. $9.00 per hour for reading the dailies and writing on a form isn't bad either. Depending on the atmosphere at your courthouse, you may be able to bring your kids (with snacks, drinks, and something quiet to do; building a good working relationship with the court clerks is also a smart idea). Cons: Doing searches is not a regular, predictable source of income; the company only contacts you when one of their clients has a job or credit applicant who lives, or used to live, in your court district. If you're paid hourly for reading the dailies, your income will depend on who is taking whom to court. If you are expected to report online, you must have access to a secure computer. You can't cherry-pick assignments the way you can as a secret shopper. If you decline assignments regularly, you may lose your contract. If they're often late or an auditor finds errors, you may lose your contract. If your local courthouse is some distance away, you probably won't be reimbursed for the cost of getting there, and obviously you have to be able to get there when they're open.
How much money could you make doing this? I have been collecting court data for ten years and as best I recall, I have made a reportable amount of money from one of my contracts once. I net an average of $45.00 per month from the employment verification agency. I used to make the same from the credit bureau before they stopped asking local court data collectors to run background checks; now I make $25.00 per month from reading the dailies. If your local courthouse serves a bigger community and you are the only contractor in your area for a given company, you could stand to make a lot more. I don't know if you could turn it into a full-time job; that really depends on how easy it is to get information at your courthouse, how much business comes your way, and what other demands you have on your time.
In short, stay-at-home moms, retirees, and anyone else with a reasonably flexible schedule who lives within easy travel distance of a courthouse might want to look into this type of work as a supplement to their income, not as a primary source.