Lake County, California Criminal Records

When a company, business, or private citizen decides to use public records, particularly criminal records, to investigate a person’s private and public character, it is considered a background check. A background check is important for a business when they need to be sure that they are hiring an upstanding, law-abiding employee with no character red flags. Or, a background check can be performed on someone by a vigilant neighbor, to ensure that the neighborhood children are safe from potential sexual predators. As most companies will not offer employment to a convicted a felon, it is important that their human resources department conducts background checks to make sure none slip through the proverbial cracks. A background check done with fingerprints will bring back far more reliable results than one that is done strictly on a name basis.

Court Records

As most background checks are based on information derived from public records, court records are very useful when you need to vet someone’s background. In Lake County, California, you will have to go through the Lake County Superior Court for case and court record information. The Lake County Superior Court system has two branches, and their contact information is listed here:

Clearlake Division
7000 A South Center Drive, Clearlake CA 95422

Phone: 707-994-6598 Fax: 707-994-1625

Lakeport Division

255 North Forbes Street, Room 417, Lakeport CA 95453

Phone: 707-263-2374 Fax: 707-262-1327

Both courthouse’s have standard operating hours of 8:00am -2:30pm Monday through Friday. You can also e-mail the Superior Court at mary.smith@lake.courts.ca.gov for electronic inquiries.

Public Records

The local sheriff’s office in Lake County provides comprehensive resources for implementing a background check, including VINE, recent arrests, sex offenders, etc. The address to the sheriff’s office is as follows: 1220 Martin Street, P.O. Box 489, Lakeport, California. You can reach the sheriff over the telephone by calling 707-262-4200, or send an e-mail at this address: jwb@co.lake.ca.us . In addition, the sheriff has website packed with useful information that can aid with a background check at the following website: http://lakesheriff.com/.

Online Resources

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation maintains a database that allows them to archive all of the information about past and present offenders managed by the DOC. To view these individuals, you will need to use the online offender search tool at the DOC’s website, which you can find here: http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Reports_Research/Inmate_Locator.html.

All California residents who would like to see what type of information would be returned in their own background check can find out by implementing the tools provided online by the California Department of Justice. All you would need to do is pay a processing fee of $25.00, payable by a credit card, and follow the instructions listed at the following DOJ webpage: http://ag.ca.gov/fingerprints/security.php.

On the other hand, your employer may require you to obtain your own official background as a condition of pre-employment. In this instance, you can get a fingerprint-based background check from the California DOJ that will return results within 72 hours. To begin, click here: http://ag.ca.gov/fingerprints/.

You can search anyone who lives in California against the names stored in the Megan’s Law sex offender database by going to the following website: http://www.meganslaw.ca.gov/.