How to Find UK and US Court Cases

Whether you're conducting due diligence, vetting a business partner, or investigating fraud, criminal and court records can provide valuable information available during an OSINT investigation.

A court case can reveal far more than whether somebody has been convicted of an offence. Civil litigation may expose financial disputes, breach of contract claims, property disputes or allegations of professional misconduct. Criminal cases can provide insight into offending behaviour, associates, timelines and locations.

The challenge is that there is no single database covering every court in either the UK or the United States. Investigators need to understand which courts hear which types of cases and where those records are published.

This guide explains how to search both UK and US court records using publicly available sources, while also highlighting the limitations investigators should understand before drawing conclusions.