If you wouldn't settle for a "National Database Only" search for a CEO in Chicago, why would you accept it for a candidate in Manila, London, or San Juan?

The Double Standard of Due Diligence:

  • The US Standard: Every professional CRA knows that a "National Database" search is a lead-generator. You verify the "Hit" at the County Court to ensure the data is current, belongs to the subject, and is legally reportable.
  • The International "Shortcut": Too many wholesalers sell "Social Media Scans" or "National Police Indices" (like the NBI or PR Police Certificate) as a final result.

Why Social Media and Scraped Databases Fail in Court:

  1. Identity Theft/Mistaken Identity: Without a clerk-verified judicial docket, you cannot prove the "John Smith" with a felony is your John Smith.
  2. Lack of Dispositions: Databases and social media are great at finding "Arrests" or "Accusations," but they rarely show the "Dismissal" or "Expungement." Reporting an arrest without a disposition is a direct violation of FCRA "Maximum Possible Accuracy" standards.
  3. The "Silent Archipelago": As I discovered when mapping courts with the Supreme Court of the Philippines, records in decentralized systems don't "float" up to databases. They stay in the courthouse.

The Straightline Mandate: We apply the same logic to the world that we apply to the USA.

  • In London, we don't just scrape; we hit the Magistrates' Court.
  • In Puerto Rico, we don't just buy the Police Certificate; we hit the Tribunal Superior.
  • In the Philippines, we don't just check the NBI; we hit the RTC.

If your provider's "Gold Standard" is a database, their standard is made of lead.