Los Angeles DOB Redaction
The Los Angeles Superior Court has announced that “effective close of business February 23, 2024, the Superior Court of Los Angeles County will no longer include the month and year of birth as criteria in its criminal name search engines. These revised search criteria apply to courthouse kiosks and the Court’s website at LACourt.org.” REVISEDSEARCHPROCEDURESFORCRIMINALCASES.pdf (lacourt.org)
Our partners, along with many other companies and the PBSA, have been working to find a solution. The only names that we will be able to clear are names without any name matches in the court index. This will mean that files will need to be ordered for every possible case within the requested scope for every matching name.
We believe that we will weather this storm! We have always relied on many dedicated, hands-on researchers who physically go into the many neighborhood courthouses in LA. This is how we have always searched in LA. We will certainly be ordering more files for more people, but we have the research network in place to take the blow. Having the people in the courts will make all of the difference.
Things to consider with Los Angeles DOB Redaction:
Pricing and Fees:
Prices and court fees are expected to rise, as much more work and time will be needed for ID verification, not to mention the number of files that will need to be ordered. We really won’t know to what degree the changes will be. We will be charging our regular fees for the now to see what the impact is; then we will come up with a fee that is pro-rated per search. We will be in touch next week’s regarding pricing and fees.
Scope:
Search scopes will now be limited to 10 years in LA for regular searches. Many people are limiting scopes from 10 years to 7 to help in reducing file orders/cost/TAT. Unlimited scopes will now be impossible for regular orders.
Please Be Specific:
Limiting the kinds of offenses needed will help dramatically. ie, If you only need violent offenses, we won’t need to order files for theft and DUI, etc.
Minor Traffic:
We will no longer be able to include minor traffic in LA for regular searches.
Exact Name Searches:
Because of the full redaction in DOB, all searches in LA will be exact name searches. ie: We will not look at cases for John, when the applicant’s name is Jonathan. Hyphenated names will be searched exactly as ordered. If you would like the individual names searched, they must be sent as additional requests.
Middle Names:
Full middle names or, at the least, middle initials will be required for most names, but especially common names. We will be reaching out if we need middles, but having them up front will make a big difference in turnaround time.
Prescreening:
We will not be offering service for prescreened work in LA at any volume. We must focus all of our efforts in returning regular work to clients as soon as possible.
We will get through this like we have so many other things. We’ll find a way to make this work the best for all of us.
Please let us know if you have any questions. We will be in touch!