Start with the systems most likely to change your read of a person. Then cross-check custody, registries, and paper-trail sources before you go wider.
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01 · The docket layer
Start with courts
2 sources
Run county and statewide court portals first. Civil, criminal, family, and lower-court systems are often separate, so this is where most missed records happen.
Statewide unified court search across all 100 NC counties (Tyler Odyssey Smart Search). Covers Superior, District, Magistrate, and Small Claims dockets. Returns Register of Actions per case with parties, hearings, dispositions, financial info. Separate NC Judgment Search at /app/NCJudgmentSearch/ for civil and criminal judgment indexes. eCourts conversion completed in all 100 counties on 2025-10-13; older records pre-rollout still on legacy ACIS terminals at the courthouse.
This is the single most important NC source for criminal, civil, family, and eviction history. Every NC county runs on this portal now. Search by name, case number, or citation and you will see the entire docket history. Eviction is filed as summary ejectment in Magistrate court and shows up here. Domestic violence protective orders show up here. Older cases that pre-date the county's eCourts go-live live in ACIS at the courthouse and are not online.
Name or offender ID search across NC state prison, probation, and parole populations. Records back to 1972. Includes escapes/captures, absconders, releases, and bulk data. Does NOT include county jail (use county sheriff for current detention).
If your state-prison hunch is right this confirms it. Name search is fast and the records go back fifty years. Probation and parole status surfaces here too which often matters more than the original sentence. County jail is a separate search at each sheriff's office.
Public, free, name-searchable. Aggregates registrant data submitted by all 100 county sheriffs. Email alerts for offenders moving within 1, 3, or 5 miles of any address you register; supports multiple registered addresses. Mobile site at sexoffender.ncsbi.gov/mobile.aspx. Statistics and FAQ available.
Run this against anyone you're vetting and against the addresses where your kids spend time. The proximity alert is the highest-leverage feature here: register your home, your school, your parents' house, and you'll be notified when someone registers near any of them. NC pulls from sheriff feeds in all 100 counties so coverage is complete.
NC has 50+ separate professional and occupational licensing boards, each with its own portal and search. nc.gov is the official directory of those boards. NCBOLD is the umbrella database of statutorily required NC licenses. Highest-signal individual board portals: NC Medical Board (portal.ncmedboard.org), NC Board of Nursing (ncbon.com/verify-nc-license), NC Board of Pharmacy (portal.ncbop.org), NC State Bar (membership.ncbar.gov), NC Real Estate Commission, NC Board of Licensed Professional Counselors.
License discipline is one of the cleanest signals you can find on a professional. Doctors, nurses, lawyers, real-estate agents, therapists, contractors. Each NC board runs its own search. Start with the umbrella directory if you don't know which board, otherwise go straight to the board that licenses what they claim to do. A "license in good standing" with no public discipline is reassuring; a suspension or restriction is loud.
Free public search by entity name, SOSID, or registered agent. Covers LLCs, Corporations, Limited Partnerships, LLPs, and Nonprofits registered in NC. Returns formation date, status, registered agent, principal office address, and filing history.
If a partner says they own or work at a business, this confirms it. Name search returns everything they've filed and you can also search by registered agent to see all the entities one person fronts. Useful when someone's vague about what they actually do for work.
Statewide voter search by first and last name with optional DOB and county. Returns registration status, party, precinct, polling place, and voter history. Free, no login.
NC voter rolls are public and the easiest way to confirm where someone actually lives in the state. If a partner's story doesn't match the address on file here, that's a flag. Voter history also tells you whether someone votes at all and which primaries they pull, which is its own kind of information.
Federal District, Appeals, and Bankruptcy courts. Over 1 billion documents filed. $0.10/page (capped at $3.00/document); free if quarterly charges under $30. Account required for search. Confirmed live 2026-05-03.
PACER catches federal cases the state DOC and state courts will not. Account required, small per-search fees. Worth using for white-collar, federal drug, immigration, and bankruptcy.
All federal prison inmates, current and historical from 1982. Search by name (with race/sex/age filters) or inmate number. Note: search backend showed intermittent error during 2026-05-03 verification — likely temporary. If main tool is down, try https://www.bop.gov/mobile/find_inmate/byname.jsp as fallback.
All 50 states aggregated, plus DC, US territories, and tribal nations. Search by name or location. DOJ-operated. Named after Dru Sjodin. Also links to abuse reporting resources. Confirmed live 2026-05-03.