Criminal records, with the FCRA time rules already applied
A regulated criminal search for consumer reporting agencies and screening platforms, placed as an FCRA order on its own or beside a registry search. Non-convictions past seven years are removed charge by charge, the salary exemption is used only when you state it, state conviction limits are read conservatively, the courts in every state of the consumer’s address history are searched live, and every record is re-checked live before it is furnished.
Enabled under a written FCRA agreement. Standard criminal search is separate and is not a consumer report.
curl -sS https://api.offendersearch.app/v1/fcra/orders \
-H "X-API-Key: $OFFENDERSEARCH_FCRA_KEY" \
-H "Idempotency-Key: client-4471-order-0194" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"endUserId": "eu_acme_logistics",
"permissiblePurpose": "employment",
"consent": { "obtainedAt": "2026-10-02T13:55:00Z", "method": "esign" },
"subject": {
"firstName": "Jordan", "lastName": "Reyes", "dob": "1988-03-02",
"addresses": [{ "state": "TX", "city": "Austin", "from": "2018-05", "to": null }]
},
"useLocation": { "state": "TX" },
"annualSalary": 62000,
"searches": [{ "type": "criminal" }, { "type": "sex_offender" }]
}'The records and the rules, together
The obsolescence layer, built in
Collecting records is the easy half. Deciding which of them a report may carry — by record type, disposition, age, salary and state — is the half that ends up in litigation. An FCRA order makes that decision before anything is furnished, and tells you how many charges it removed and why.
County, state and federal in one search
Jail bookings, prison terms, court cases and warrants across more than a thousand county, state and federal jurisdictions, in one schema with a kind discriminator — so an arrest-stage booking is never mistaken for a conviction in your adjudication rules.
Searched live in the consumer’s states
Courts and custody systems in every state of the consumer’s address history and the state where the job or housing is are searched in real time for the order — not only our stored data — and the coverage table says which sources were live, when, and how current the rest are.
Current status at the time of the report
Each record that survives the rules is re-checked live against the official record before it is furnished, and carries the time it was verified — then the time rules run again on the fresh copy. A record the authority no longer shows is withheld.
Time limits and record types, applied before furnishing
On top of the shared controls, the criminal search in an order applies the reporting limits that govern criminal history in a consumer report.
The federal seven-year rule, charge by charge
Arrests and other non-conviction items more than seven years old are removed one charge at a time, so a stale charge does not take a whole case with it. Deferred adjudication, diversion and pending matters are treated as non-convictions — the side that withholds more. Convictions are not time-limited under federal law.
The salary exemption — federal only, and only when stated
For employment at an annual salary of $75,000 or more, the federal seven-year limits do not apply. The exemption is used only when the request states the salary, and it is never applied to a state limit.
State conviction limits, read conservatively
Eleven states cap how long a conviction may be reported. A cap is applied when the record’s state, any state the consumer has lived in, or the state where the report is used is one of them — measured from the conviction date, which never withholds less than the statute requires.
Undated means withheld
When a time limit could apply but the record lacks the date or the disposition needed to decide it, the item is withheld rather than guessed at — and counted under its own reason so you know why.
Record type and disposition, labelled
Every furnished criminal record states what it is — booking, prison term, court case or warrant — and the disposition as the record holds it, so an arrest is never read as a conviction.
Every removal is counted, by reason
The criminal search adds its own reasons to the shared ones, and reports charges removed separately from records withheld — so a partially redacted case is never a mystery.
| Reason | Meaning |
|---|---|
obsolete_non_conviction | A non-conviction item older than seven years, removed under the federal rule |
time_limited | A conviction beyond a state reporting limit that applies to this report |
obsolescence_undeterminable | A time limit could apply, but the date or disposition needed to decide it is missing |
insufficient_identifiers | Matched on less than the full date of birth |
disputed_suppressed | A resolved consumer dispute removed this record |
not_current_at_source | The live re-check found it no longer shown by the authority that holds it |
verification_unavailable | The live re-check could not complete — the outcome is incomplete |
The reporting limits are in 15 U.S.C. § 1681c; the current-status duty for public records used in employment is in 15 U.S.C. § 1681k.
The controls shared with the registry search
Applied in order to every search in an order — sex offender and criminal — before a single record leaves.
End user, purpose and consent on every order
An order is refused unless its end user is registered and certified, its permissible purpose is one that end user holds under your agreement, and it carries your consent attestation. A refused order is still recorded.
Exact date of birth, or nothing
Only a record that matches the consumer’s full date of birth can be furnished. A name-only or birth-year match is withheld — name-only matching is the pattern regulators have penalized screening vendors for.
Searched live in the consumer’s states
Every search runs in real time in each state of the address history on the order and the state where the job or housing is — not only against stored data — so a recent registration or filing in those states is not missed. Everywhere else, the coverage table shows the date the data is current to; an order sent without addresses or a use state says so, row by row.
Re-verified before anything is furnished
Every remaining record is re-checked against the official record at the time of the request. A record that is no longer listed is withheld; a source that cannot answer makes the result incomplete rather than clear.
Disputed records stay out
When a consumer dispute ends with a record deleted or found not to be theirs, that record is suppressed from every later regulated answer about them.
Never “clear” on a partial search
An answer is clear only when every state that matters was searched live and answered, every other source answered, and nothing reportable was found. Otherwise it says incomplete — and the coverage table shows exactly which source did not answer.
An evidence record for every order
Purpose, end user and certification, the identifiers searched, what each source said, the control version that applied, and every record furnished or withheld with its reason.
Which courts were searched, live or from data
A clear criminal search means something only when you can see which courts and custody systems were searched, and how. Every search shows it, source by source, and keeps what each live source returned.
Live, not just stored
Each search runs in real time in every state of the address history on the order and the state where the job or housing is. A relevant state that cannot be searched live makes the result incomplete — never clear. Registries a state bars for the purpose are not searched at all, and the coverage table says so.
Coverage you can read
One row per source: searched live or from data, when it was checked, the date the data is current to, how many candidates it produced and how many were furnished or withheld.
What the live search saw
Every live check — match and no-match alike — keeps hash-pinned evidence: the official source’s own response wherever we receive it directly, and always a labelled record of what that live search returned. Each capture says which kind it is, and every one is listed in the PDF.
Verifiable by anyone
The PDF is stored once, so its hash never changes. The signed receipt carries that hash; /verify checks a file against it in the browser, and the file never leaves the device.
| Source | Mode | Checked | Data current to | Found |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| County court, Illinois | Live | 14:02 UTC | — | 1 furnished, 1 withheld |
| State corrections, Illinois | Live | 14:02 UTC | — | None |
| Court records, Wisconsin | Data | 14:01 UTC | Oct 1, 2026 | None |
Holding a report PDF? Verify it — the check runs in your browser and the file is never uploaded.
A consumer portal and disputes, handled for you
The person a report is about can see what was furnished and dispute it directly. You do not have to build the consumer side of the data layer.
See exactly what was reported
Every order carries an access code for its consumer portal. With it, their last name and date of birth, the consumer sees every item furnished in that order — and without a code they can still request their file. We never ask for a Social Security number.
Dispute any item
A dispute — opened by you through the API or by the consumer in the portal — starts a reinvestigation with the authority that holds the record, on a 30-day clock from receipt, and the result is reported back.
Corrections reach every partner
When a dispute changes or removes a record, a record.corrected event goes to every partner that was furnished it, and the record is suppressed from later orders about that consumer.
From agreement to your first order
Regulated access is a separate grant on your account, not a setting you can turn on yourself.
1. Agree the scope
We review your business and the permissible purposes you serve, and sign a written FCRA agreement that fixes those purposes, your end-user certifications and the controls applied to every answer.
2. We enable your key
Regulated access is switched on for your account only after the agreement is signed, and only for the purposes it names. Standard self-serve access stays exactly as it was, and never carries regulated use.
3. Register end users, then place orders
Register each employer or landlord once, with its permissible purposes and your certification. Each order then names the end user, the purpose and your consent attestation, carries the consumer’s full name and date of birth, and runs a sex-offender search, a criminal search, or both.
4. Get an answer you can stand behind
Orders run in the background and report back by signed webhook. Each search runs live in the states that matter and comes with a source-by-source coverage table. Only records that pass every control are furnished, each with its match evidence and the time it was verified; everything else is a count by reason, and the whole order is kept as evidence.
One agreement, both checks
Most screening reports carry a registry check beside the criminal search. The FCRA sex offender check runs in the same order. See how orders, webhooks and disputes work in the FCRA Orders API and the disputes API. For the rule itself, read the FCRA seven-year rule, explained.
FCRA criminal records questions
Which criminal records does the seven-year rule remove?
Arrests and other adverse items that are not convictions, once they are more than seven years old. Deferred adjudication, diversion and pending matters are treated as non-convictions, which withholds more rather than less. Convictions are not time-limited under federal law, though several states limit them.
How is the $75,000 salary exemption applied?
Only when the order is for employment and states an annual salary of $75,000 or more. It lifts the federal seven-year limits for that report, and it is never applied to a state conviction limit — several state laws carry their own thresholds or none.
Which state conviction limits are applied?
The eleven state laws that cap how long a conviction may be reported. A limit applies when the record’s state, any state in the subject’s address history, or the state where the job or housing is (useLocation.state) is one of them. Measuring from the conviction date is the cautious choice: it never withholds less than a statute that runs from release or parole.
What happens to a case where only some charges are too old?
The old charges are removed and the rest of the case is furnished. A case left with no reportable charges is removed entirely, and the search counts both the charges removed and the records withheld, by reason.
What if a record has no disposition or no date?
If a time limit could apply but the record does not carry what is needed to decide it, the item is withheld under obsolescence_undeterminable rather than guessed at. That is the side of the line a consumer report should err on.
Does it replace a county courthouse search?
It replaces the integration work, not your judgment about coverage. Every search returns a coverage table — each court or custody system, whether it was searched live or from data, when, and the date its data is current to — and an unanswered source makes the result incomplete, so you always know when to send a runner.
Can I show a client what the live search found?
Yes. Every live check keeps hash-pinned evidence for match and no-match alike — the official source’s own response wherever we receive it directly, and always a labelled record of what that live search returned — with its time and SHA-256 hash. Download each capture for the order; every hash is listed in the stored report PDF, which anyone can check against its signed receipt at /verify.
How do disputes on criminal records work?
Open a dispute on the furnished record through the disputes API, or the consumer opens one in the portal with the access code on the order. It is reinvestigated with the court or agency that holds the record on a 30-day clock, and a correction reaches every partner that received the record.
Add a regulated criminal layer to your reports
Tell us which purposes you serve and where your clients hire or lease. We will set up the agreement, enable FCRA orders on your key and open your sandbox.
Request FCRA Partner Access How the program works
FCRA pricing is quoted per partner — contact us for pricing. Standard self-serve access is separate and is not a consumer report.