Three Most Authentic Places a Paralegal Can Find Help to Locate a Missing Person

Help from Credit Agencies

If your firm or your investigators have access to one of the "Big Three" credit record services-Trans-Union, CBI/Equifax, or TRW-you may be able to locate a missing person by entering his or her Social Security number into these credit history databases. The credit report should list the most recent address. While the state DMV may be a bit behind with good address information, rest assured that these credit report agencies will do their best to have a current address because their credit card customers (the banks, Visa, MasterCard, gas companies, department stores, etc.) want their money from their cardholders.


Many fraudulent people use several different Social Security numbers to confuse creditors and keep the IRS and other agencies off their backs. If you find several names and several numbers, you may have a more serious criminal violator on your hands.

Besides providing location and credit status, the credit report is useful for gauging a person's assets should a civil suit become necessary. Besides acting as a first-look net worth indicator, the report also may list court judgments against the person, wage attachments, and state and federal tax liens. This information can help you plan your case better and may offer other suggestions to help find the person. If your firm doesn't subscribe to a database information service, you might want to do some research and present a list of these companies to your attorneys. Many of these firms offer a wide range of information, including DMV records; personal and business credit; property, title, and asset searches; and criminal, civil, and judicial index records.

If you do decide to use one of these services, help it as you would an investigator by providing as much information as possible.

Help from the U.S. Postal Service

In his gripping sociological study of law enforcement, author Jonathan Rubinstein spent several months riding with the Philadelphia Police Department. One day he was sitting in a patrol car with a veteran officer. As they watched people pass on the street, the cop pointed to a man walking near a row of houses and said, "See that guy? If I knew what he does about the people here I'd be the best cop in the district. I been here twelve years and I don't know what he knows. And I know more than most."

The Philadelphia officer was referring to the postman, walking from house to business, delivering the mail. The USPS can help you find missing people because its own "army" of letter carriers and postal workers delivers mail to literally everyone old enough to reach a mailbox. Suppose your defendant gives only a post office box as an address. So how do you serve him? Thanks to some help from the U.S. Postal Service, your firm's process server can get access to P.O. Box subscriber information. Armed with a civil process, a process server can request the physical address of a Post Office Box holder. Under federal law, the Postmaster at the box location has to release the information to a registered process server needing to serve an individual. Using this fast and inexpensive method, you can learn the street address of your defendant.

Another tremendously simple technique requires only that you send a letter to the missing person's old address with the phrase "Address Correction Requested-Return Postage Guaranteed" across the front of the envelope. This trick will often give you the person's new forwarding address, all for only the cost of a few stamps.

Help from the Government

Whether you like it or not, our government keeps tabs on everybody, young or old, large or small. Banks of federal computers whir and grind 24 hours a day, keeping track of us for tax purposes and reasons of business, national security, defense, law enforcement, property, voting, mail, health, farming, industry, and for a range of other reasons we're not always too sure about.

While much of this information is protected at the federal, state, county, and city level, some of it is not. With a little diligence and some careful searching, you can find out many things about a person. Your tax dollars have paid for this tracking system, it's legal and relatively accurate and efficient, so why not put it to good use for your firm? Here's a short list of some of the offices, divisions, and databanks within our vast government where you can do some research:

At the County Courthouse/Hall of Records:

Fictitious business license applications: You can search the files for addresses here by the person's name or by the company's fictitious business name.

Marriage/ birth/death certificates: Access to these records may give you new leads or answer questions about the whereabouts of a missing person.

Criminal cases: Using the public records of Municipal and Superior Court proceedings, you can identify convicted criminals and find out if they are in jail, on parole, or on probation.

Civil cases: You can research civil court cases and locate plaintiffs and defendants involved in past proceedings.

Other Resources:

The Office of the Secretary of State in your state: You can call this office in your state capitol to request address and personnel information, such as the agent for service, for a corporation incorporated or doing business in your state.

Marshals, constables, sheriffs as process servers: You can contract with these public officials to serve your civil process papers for you. They are often more efficient and less expensive than private enterprise attorney services. These law enforcement officials are especially helpful if you have defendants to serve in small towns and rural areas. I remember handling a case for an attorney who required me to find and serve a defendant in a small Tennessee town. I found the person, but his address was listed as the local post office. I called and spoke with one of the sheriff’s deputies who worked the area. He immediately recognized the defendant's name and his real home address (at the end of a dead-end dirt road). I sent him the required fees for civil process service and the summons and complaint. He served the defendant and mailed back the proof of service for filing in less than one week.