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NEW! Court PC Connecticut Probate
Court database
Court PC now offers
Connecticut Probate Court data through our online
database. The data has been compiled
from records provided by the CT Probate Court
Administrator. Over 500,000 probate estate and
trust matters from the early 1990s forward are included
in the database, and data is updated
monthly.
The following searches are
available: by decedent or trust name at
$7/search; by attorney or fiduciary name
(provides a listing of all cases associated
with the attorney or fiduciary with links to case
details) for $15/search; and all open cases in
a specific probate district for
$15/district.
Typical case details contain
the following information:
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Decedent's full name and
date of death or name of trust
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Court location, case
number and Judge
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Date filed, type of case,
open/closed status, and date closed
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Attorney and/or Fiduciary
name(s) with address information
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Inventory status, file date
and type
All name searches may be conducted by either
a last name or fragment of the name and capture
name extensions automatically without use of
wildcards.
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NEW! Patriot
Act data available through Court PC
online database
If you're required to conduct Patriot
Act searches for background checks, closings or
other regulated transactions, you can now
access the Export.gov consolidated screening
list through the Court PC website. This
list covers approximately
28,000 individuals and entities identified by
the Commerce, State and Treasury Departments who
have been barred from conducting import/export or
other transactions with US citizens or
entities. Data is updated regularly (often
weekly) as released by these government
agencies. Patriot Act search charges are $5
per
name. |
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Court PC party name search now
automatically captures name
extensions
After sending out countless
reminders on the use of
wildcards, we've changed the way our
search logic handles the terms you enter in a
standard party name search. The
asterisk wildcard ("*") at the end of a name
is no longer necessary -- all name extensions are
automatically provided. If you enter just
the five letters "CIGNA" as a search term,
the search logic now captures
records matching the names Cigna, Cigna
Corporation, Cigna Dental Health Inc., Cigna
Financial Advisors LLC and so on.
Entering the search as CIGNA* has no
negative effect, as the new search logic ignores
the final wildcard. Asterisks
used anywhere else in the search term
are still treated as wildcards, so L*BERM
entered as a last name will match records entered
as
Lieberman or Leiberman.
Likewise, if you enter the last name EVANS,
you'll be able to see records where the last name
field reads Evans, Evans Sr., Evans Admin
Estate of, etc. If you simply enter the
letter S in the first name field, the records
returned will include Sean, Sandra, and Scott; an
*IS in the first name field will match
to Doris, Isaac, and
Morris. |
A word of caution about CT Judicial
Branch online criminal conviction
records
I've routinely advised clients using
the criminal records convictions data offered on the CT
Judicial Branch website to be mindful of the
State's disclaimer that cases are dropped off the
database after ten years. While dropping
older records seems reasonable and
fair when applied to simple misdemeanors
or Class D felonies, this practice carries some
troubling, probably unintended
consequences. I was recently
surprised to find no records on the
site for a 2002 conviction for some
very serious offenses.
To check whether this was a
fluke, I ran a simple query on the Court PC
criminal records database for all cases with a
guilty verdict entered in January 2003 where the minimum
jail time imposed exceeded ten years. This
produced 76 matching case records. I checked
a sample of about 20 of these convictions against the
Judicial Branch data, and found
that only two of those 20
records were still appearing in the Judicial
Branch data. Many of the conviction records
in the sample I checked carried a minimum jail
time of 20 years or more.
My casual survey confirms that the
State strictly observes that 10-year retention
rule. This represents a policy
change regarding criminal data retention from
the time when I started collecting criminal conviction
records back in the early 1990s. At that time, the
policy was to remove records from the data two years
after the end of any sentence or probationary
period served.
The takeaway from
this? Some convicted
offenders still on probation or actively serving
time will have "clean" criminal records according
to the CT Judicial Branch data. And do not rely on
this data exclusively if you are looking for
a complete criminal
history.
Please e-mail or call if you have any
questions this e-mail has not answered. Thanks for
your time and attention.
contact: John Lach, Court PC of
Connecticut Inc.
toll-free fax:
866-768-3761
mail to: P O Box 951,
Philmont, NY
12565 | 