Federal criminal court searches.
Tax evasion, bank fraud, interstate trafficking, and crimes on federal land are filed in one of 94 U.S. District Courts, which county searches never cover. A federal criminal search queries the districts derived from address history.
Also called federal district court search, PACER search, U.S. District Court criminal.
Add federal where the role needs it$25 per check · no subscription · set up in 5 minutes
How it runs on vID
Identity verified
Search runs
Report returned
What it covers
Federal cases in the districts searched, typically the residence district or 7-year set- White-collar and regulatory offenses that never appear in county court
- Provided-name and developed-name searches when the package includes them
This is the most commonly skipped serious search in employment screening: JDP’s notes say it plainly — low hit rate, district-by-district, an extra layer on top of state and county. For finance, executive, and healthcare-billing roles the cases it catches are the ones that are catastrophic to miss, and federal records’ thin identifiers are where a bound vID identity and Synapse’s corroboration rules matter most.
What it covers
- Federal cases in the districts searched, typically the residence district or 7-year set
- White-collar and regulatory offenses that never appear in county court
- Provided-name and developed-name searches when the package includes them
What it doesn’t cover
Cover state or county offenses; those are other courts- Search all 94 districts unless you paid for that; most packages do not
- Match identities by itself; federal records often lack full dates of birth
Where the data comes from.
U.S. District Court indexes / PACER
Searched by district, with district selection following address history, the same as county selection.
Why identity comes first.
Federal files often lack the identifiers a county clerk would give. vID’s document-grade name and DOB, plus address history, let Synapse refuse a name-only match that would otherwise look like a hit.
How the network fulfills it.
JDP, 3rd Degree, DataFacts, and the rest of the criminal-capable network run federal district searches as a line item. We order the product the network already knows how to quality-control.
This is the wrong search if…
The role has no federal or fiduciary exposure and no client asking for it
Then it is optional. Do not add it to every volunteer coach because it sounds thorough.
You think one “federal search” covers the country
It covers the districts you ordered, usually derived from residence history. Nationwide federal is a different, rarer product.
Commonly ordered with.
- County criminal search
The local courthouse, where most cases still are.
- OFAC & sanctions screening
Finance and contracting roles often need the list as well as the court.
- Employment credit report
Fiduciary packages sometimes want both, where credit is lawful.
Add Federal criminal search to your next check.
Identity-verified, fulfilled through the partner network.
Who orders this
Frequently asked questions.
If the damage would be federal, search federal.
Identity-verified, district-scoped, fulfilled through the same CRA network that runs your counties.
Add federal where the role needs it