public-records-lookup v1.0.0

name: public-records-lookup description: Cross-source US public records research: state business registries, PACER federal court records, SEC EDGAR filings, county property records, and FOIA requests. Use when an agent needs to verify a company or its officers, find court filings or dockets, research property ownership, trace filings across sources, or draft and track a records request.

Public Records Lookup

Purpose

Walk public records across the five major US sources, starting with whichever one matches the question, and cross-check claims against at least two of them before reporting. The sources are:

1. State business registries (Secretary of State / corporation division). Entity formation, officers and directors, registered agent, status, filing history.
2. SEC EDGAR. For publicly traded companies: 10-K, 10-Q, 8-K, proxy, insider, and ownership filings.
3. PACER. Federal district, appellate, and bankruptcy court dockets and filings.
4. County property records. Assessor, recorder / clerk / register of deeds, GIS maps.
5. FOIA. Federal agency records via foia.gov or the agency's own portal.

For per-source mechanics (portal navigation, fees, form types, request templates), read the matching file in references/.

Workflow

1. Frame the question. Decide which record answers it: a company's officers (business registry), a company's finances (EDGAR), a lawsuit or bankruptcy (PACER), who owns a parcel (county records), or what the government holds (FOIA). If the subject is a person, look for the entity or case around them, not the person directly.
2. Start with the free official portal. Prefer the government source over any aggregator: the state registry over a lookup site, EDGAR over a finance site, PACER over a legal blog. Aggregators speed things up but can be stale; the official source is the record of truth.
3. Search with variations. Registries are literal: try the name without entity suffixes ("Rodriguez Plumbing" before "Rodriguez Plumbing LLC"), alternate spellings, middle initials, and maiden or prior names. Note every variation you tried.
4. Open the underlying filing, not just the summary. The entity record page shows status and agent; the filing history (annual reports, formation documents) shows the people. The docket entry shows the filing exists; the PDF shows what it says. Summaries omit details that matter.
5. Cross-check. One record makes a claim; two make a finding. Match officers between the state registry and an EDGAR 10-K; match a PACER docket's parties against the registry's registered agent; match an assessed owner against the recorded deed. Record which pairs you verified.
6. Mind the limits. PACER is federal courts only. Business registries show officers on file, not necessarily current operators. Assessor records show the taxpayer of record and can lag a recent sale. FOIA requests take weeks and each agency keeps its own records.

Output Contract

Every report from this skill contains:

• Subject (name, entity, case number, or parcel searched)
• Sources checked (each portal or office, with the exact search terms or identifiers used)
• Findings (what each source returned, with filing or document dates)
• Verification (which claims were cross-checked against a second source, and which stand alone)
• Gaps (what was not found, what could not be accessed, and what would close the gap)
• Citations (source URLs for every factual claim; no claim without a link)

Operating Rules

• Verify every factual claim against a primary source or live web search. Never invent numbers, dates, quotes, or events. If you cannot verify it, cut it or label it as unverified opinion.
• Never describe an aggregator's data as the official record. Name the aggregator and the underlying source separately.
• Treat fees and account requirements as part of the plan: PACER charges per page and needs an account; some state and county portals charge for document copies. State the expected cost before a large pull.
• Records are public facts, but people are not. Use records to answer the assigned question; do not build dossiers, stalk, or combine records into a profile of a private individual. Refuse research that targets someone for harassment, doxxing, or intimidation.
• When research is for legal proceedings, say so in the report and recommend the requester verify with counsel. This skill is not legal advice.