How Can I Access LexisNexis Public Records?

February 8, 2022 11:07 PM

I need to do some research through LexisNexis Public Records or an equivalent public records database. I am but a modest individual unaffiliated with any organization or deep pockets. Is there a way for me to access this free or through a discounted rate?

I think what I'm wondering here is if some kind of membership or affiliation that doesn't cost a thousand dollars a month would give me access to this service or something equivalent to it. Some details:

1. I am not doing anything jurisprudential--I don't need access to case law tools.

2. What I'm looking for is the LexisNexis tools that allow you to look up an individual's press references, criminal charges/legal issues, and any public records of assets.

FWIW I live in Los Angeles, but I've poked around the City and County library and found nothing, as well as the university I attended here, and they don't seem to have anything for alumni.

Any thoughts or ideas? If there's just a series of databases I can use to stitch together the equivalent value of this very expensive service, that works for me too.

posted by kensington314 to Computers & Internet (11 answers total)

Best answer: LexisNexis is now called Nexis Uni. Are you talking about looking through news articles about a specific person? I haven't used the database for looking up information about individuals' assets and such. I think of Nexis as being for newspapers, company information, law reviews, and case law, but I haven't used it extensively. However, one way to approach this, rather than trying to access a specific database, may be to start with the information you want to find, and then reach out to the librarians at LA Public Library to ask for advice on search tools.

I'm not sure of your alma mater, but many academic libraries allow the public to use their resources in the building. This is tricky during the pandemic, but you can often use library databases on campus when you're on university wifi. It looks like UCLA libraries are closed to the general public right now. However, you may be able to use library databases on campus with your own laptop using their publicly-accessible wifi. And of course UCLA has NexisUni.

I wouldn't focus on the alumni thing. If you're anywhere near UCLA, you are near a gigantic research library that's also a public institution who will, as much as they can during the pandemic, make these resources available to you on campus if you a have a laptop.
posted by bluedaisy at 11:26 PM on February 8, 2022 [1 favorite]

Best answer: For journalist-style research, Superior Court of L.A. search by name is something you could try.

County recorder's office for land-related issues.
posted by johngoren at 3:46 AM on February 9, 2022

Best answer: LA Public Library has a service where you can book a one-on-one appointment with a reference librarian. Start there, they will help you!

UC libraries are also an option, I used to work the reference desk at a UC Berkeley library, and probably 50 ish percent of questions were from members of the general public. Not sure what the current situation is at UCLA for personalized reference help for the public.
posted by rockindata at 4:12 AM on February 9, 2022 [1 favorite]

Best answer: If all you want is criminal history or allegations you can google search them. There is also Pacer that lists any jail sentences or federal court records.
posted by The_imp_inimpossible at 4:26 AM on February 9, 2022

University libraries may have freely accessible wifi but that will not necessarily give you access to their databases. Some academic libraries allow people who are not affiliated with the university to use the library's computers. Check with your local academic library to make sure. You're an alum of a local university? Email the reference desk there; make it clear you're an alum and ask about using the online resources in person.

And yeah, as someone above suggested, make an appointment with the reference librarian at your local public library.
posted by mareli at 5:12 AM on February 9, 2022

Hello, so this is what I do daily as a prospect researcher for a nonprofit. You can cobble this together through a bunch of free resources. I recommend doing a search on a few different background check sites, just Google free background check and see what comes up. I searched free background check CA and found this government website with some useful links: https://oag.ca.gov/consumers/general/pra

For the property records, if you have the address, you can look up the property on the county tax assessor's website. If I'm remembering right, CA has some extensive privacy laws so you won't be able to see the name on the deed, but you can get an idea of how much they paid for it, mailing address, etc.

Forefront in Chicago has dedicated librarians for doing prospect research. They do offer research appointments with the public too. Feel free to memail me with any direct questions, and I can look through my list of free sources.
posted by pumpkinlatte at 6:25 AM on February 9, 2022 [3 favorites]

I don't know how things work where you are, but here, the courthouse law library is open to the public. If the regular library doesn't work, you could look into that.
posted by lookoutbelow at 8:20 AM on February 9, 2022

There are different tiers/flavors of LexisNexis. NexisUni is pretty basic; it provides broad coverage of media outlets but to my knowledge isn't going to address the background check element.

A law library or university library should have more robust LexisNexis products. Your public librarians will likely know where to refer you; LA Law Library looks like one possibility.

You should also have a variety of general interest newspaper/magazine/journal databases available through your public libraries. Searching these is more piecemeal but may uncover articles not available through NexisUni.

Finally, if you're researching individuals who own businesses, see if LA City/County has a business librarian. There are all sorts of databases, free and subscription, that they can hook you up with.
posted by toastedcheese at 9:12 AM on February 9, 2022 [1 favorite]

Seconding toastedcheese that I don't think NexisUni will have the kinds of public records listed in the question, but hope someone will correct me if I'm wrong! The academic library I work in offers onsite access to visitors for most resources, but NexisUni is specifically excluded from public access; ours is probably not the only license that has that restriction.
posted by zepheria at 10:40 AM on February 9, 2022

LexisNexis will sell individual Accurint reports (LexisNexis has lots of products, y’all!) if you can somehow identify yourself to them as authorized to have that kind of info.

Idk if you’re aware of the site, but OSINT Framework is a good place to cobble together the kinds of sources you might need for free or free-ish.
posted by hollyholly at 11:08 AM on February 9, 2022 [1 favorite]

Any kind of publicly available LexisNexis account through an academic or law library probably does not allow you to search public records. I have access to academic law library LexisNexis and the public records access is pretty limited. And we can't make it available to the public at all.

The kind of Lexis for the public subscription libraries can get usually only includes case law and statutes.
posted by interplanetjanet at 12:59 PM on February 10, 2022