Thursday, September 18, 2014

By Claire Dowell


The recording of man's activities has existed since ancient times. In the earliest organized civilizations, the need to record taxes, disputes, prisoners, and so on has already been established. For instance, in ancient Babylon, recordings of events are all etched via cuneiform writing on clay tablets. Such activities have benefitted succeeding generations, and have continued to do so for years to come.

Public records are pieces of information, proceedings, files, accounts, or other records which a government must maintain, protect, and update. Described as "public", these records must be available for public access, procurement and scrutiny. Public records include vital events such as births, deaths, marriages. Furthermore, documentations of most legal actions, voter registration files, criminal records, and government spending reports also fall into this list of records made available to the grasp of the general public.

The multiple implications and uses of public documents in most legal and statistical processes is the reason why they are considered as such. For instance, background checking of potential employees via asking for their criminal record is standard protocol amongst companies and workplaces in order to prevent likely liabilities. Moreover, vital records such as marriage licenses and divorce records are commonly procured for a number of processes, such as to formally declare the legalization of a marriage and a divorce, after the approval of the appropriate authorities. Public records in the form of government transparency reports also allow healthy scrutiny from the populace. Studies regarding demographic and socioeconomic trends can also be done by utilizing the data contained within public records.

Matters concerning public records in the United States are guided by the Freedom of Information Act. Furthermore, different states implement different rules regarding public records according to their own take on the said legislation. These diversities range from strict to lenient guidelines in obtaining copies of any public record.

As previously mentioned, the maintenance and dispensation of public registers differ per state. Some states implement a centralized, state-wide approach in the procurement of such documents, while some keep it on a county level to narrow down search efforts.

It is a basic part of the human condition to be in constant pursuit of things that will make life more convenient. This principle has taken form into the Internet in the 21st century. The power of the World Wide Web can now be harnessed to gain access to and procure almost all commodities and services known to man, including public records. Government entities and independent service providers now offer the public the power and the liberty to perform public record search towards a person they are pursuing. Records search via the Internet has become one of the most popular topics subject to search and retrieval efforts, because it can save one heaps of time, money, and exertion.




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