The US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs is holding a hearing, Examining the Financial Services Industry’s Responsibilities and Role in Preventing Identity Theft and Protecting Sensitive Financial Information, this Thursday, September 22 at 10:00 AM. Read the list of presenters.

A bill that prohibits posting certain personal information on the Internet
with the intent or threat to cause harm or death to a person is officially
law. Read the article

I don’t know who’s going to be looking over their shoulder for a potential sex offender on the loose when people are still struggling to figure out where they can put their lives back together. In any case, the Louisiana Attorney General had time to put together this list of displaced sex offenders, which I think means, “we have no idea where they are”. A more complete database of all Louisiana sex offenders can still be found at the AG’s website.

A New Jersey Superior Court has issued an Order restraining Source Resources from selling telephone account information on Verizon Wireless subscribers. Apparently a customer of Verizon complained that there was an unauthorized access to his/her account, which prompted the lawsuit.

Superior Court Judge Harriet Derman ordered a permanent injunction against Source Resources Tuesday as part of a settlement between Verizon Wireless and the company. Source Resources agreed to cooperate with Verizon Wireless by surrendering records of its transactions and information about how it previously obtained customer records. [Emphasis mine.] Read the article [Somerset County, Cellco Partnership vs Source Resources, Docket L -001013-05]

You may see some similarity between a free index of criminal records and a fee site. Take a look at the formatting on the search results at the Minnesota Criminals Background (free reg. req.)free search and compare it to the display and content at one of your fee services. Looks just the same? Some fee-based databases of criminal histories provide content that is completely free at another private site or a government operated site. Of course, there’s no free site that enables a search across many state jurisdictions at once, excluding the fledgling sex offender service. The Minnesota Department of Public Safety has a free criminal history search but it doesn’t presearch the sex offender database in a neat package, as does the free commercial site.

There don’t seem to be a lot of exciting new elements being added to the content or functionality of proprietary databases. Knowx has added a search tool it imaginatively calls Tracer. The descriptive information at the site is scanty and requires a “professional” level account (obtained with submission of a business or professional license) to use.

Tracer links individuals by common threads by spidering billions of records using KnowX’s R.I.E.C.K. Technology. Search to obtain linked associate records that include addresses, AKAs, maiden names, ages, and more.

Tracer appears to search through only the Knowx databases for criminal, civil, real property and business associations, providing a list of databases where the subject parameters appear. The search can be conducted using first names, cross referencing with associates that share a common address. Then you get the pleasure of paying a high-priced fee for each database. It looks from the price list that a fee of $7.95 is also charged to conduct the search. If anyone discovers differently, let me know and I’ll write an addendum.

The author of the blog Abstract Appeal notes that the work product privilege that extends to investigators working for attorneys does not extend to conditions where the investigator is listed as a trial witness. See the posting under the heading, Fifth District: Work Product.

The Fifth District reasoned:

The first order denying the Huets’ motion for a protective order rendered February 16, 2005, was correctly decided because the Huets had included these investigators on their witness lists, and indicated they intended to call them to present testimony and evidence at trial. See Persell; Ellis. The controlling issue here, however, is the efficacy of the Huets’ subsequent attempt to solve their problem by filing an amended witness list which removed any reference to the three investigators and then filing a motion for rehearing, arguing a change of circumstances.

And arguing that the cat can be stuffed back into the bag, the court observed that once the investigators names were removed from the witness list they were once again covered by the work product privilege.

That is, in essence, what occurred here. Having struck the three investigators from the witness list, the Huets cured the basis for the prior ruling. The trial court was placed in the position it had declined to address before. Can the witnesses be deposed as to “fact” work product? See State v. Rabin, 495 So. 2d 257 (Fla. 3d DCA 1986) (”fact” work product is subject to discovery only after a showing of need). Read the opinion

Public records, free internet information sources and factual research are topics on the PI News Link blog, operated by Tamara Thompson, of interest to private investigators, attorneys, journalists and other information gatherers. All this is to say, Google has added a new tool that searches blogs with RSS feeds but, according to this article, the beta search only indexes the first few lines of text. Now you know all about my self-serving lead.

Search for trademarks and service marks registered in Idaho on the Secretary of State’s website. Search results includes a description of the mark, name of the registrant, registration and expiration dates, status, and the goods and/or services associated with the mark, as well as the option to view and print the original image and filing information.

Use this online searchable database of people who arrived at the immigration stations in San Francisco and Honolulu between 1882 and 1955. Search by name to identify case numbers, and obtain the file at the Federal Records Center in San Bruno, California.