Very good points Kristina. Especially the one about website disclaimers. It isn't just what they leave out, many of these sites disclaim any value for professional title work such as accuracy, timeliness or completeness. Some site TOS will actually state the site is not suitable for use by professional abstractors.

Other files that are excluded from the websites are probate and divorce cases, at least in Texas.

In some cases millions of files can disappear from the websites when websites update the sites. The Tarrant County Clerk acknowledged in 2012 that almost a million records were removed from the website for six months as the county attempted to redact Social Security numbers from the website files. Visitors to the site were not notified until after the redaction was completed however they were warned in the website disclaimer and TOS that the records were not guaranteed to be complete or part of the official record.

Some Names Excluded from Websites -- Can Only Be Found At The Courthouse

In an effort to protect Military personnel, police, first responders and others have the right in many states and counties to have their names removed from the online indexes. At least one county has added judges to the list of people who can opt out of have their records displayed online. over one hundred judges cited the murder of a federal judge's family in their Chicago home when they petitioned the Allegheny County Clerk (PA) to remove their names and addresses from the county website. You can read more about these issues in The Truth About Redaction

Any professional who is aware of these issues knows that online searches should be used only for preliminary work followed by a trip to the courthouse for verification.

David Bloys

Davick Services