Searching for and Civil & Criminal Records Using Sarasota County Clerk of Court
To find court records in Florida, you should go to each county's Clerk of Court as they are in charge of processing and storing documents issued by the court. These documents are essential for a background check as they may shed light on a person's criminal convictions. In other words, they can tell you if a certain individual has been found guilty of a misdemeanor or a felony offense. In the following lines, we are going to focus on Sarasota Clerk of Court and explain how you can utilize their sources for finding criminal records.
You have two ways for finding these records. The best you can do is visit the website Saratsota's Clerk. You will find there a case search tool (https://secure.sarasotaclerk.com/) you can access either as a registered user or as a guest user. By selecting court type you can narrow your inquiry to civil or criminal court records. You will also need to enter additional parameters consisting of the subject's name or business name. It is also recommended including case file date.
In addition, there are web-based search tools dedicated to specific civil records, for instance county financial reports, board records and marriage records. You can gain access to these search tools at https://www.sarasotaclerk.com/records/public-records-access.
Second, if you don't want to run an online inquiry, the Sarasota Clerk of Court enables you to file a record search request via U.S. mail (send it to Public Access Department, P.O. Box 3079, Sarasota, Florida), by phone (941-861-7400) or by fax (941-861-7738).
Be advised, obtaining copies of the dockets you are looking for comes with a search fee of $2.00 per name/per year, $1.00 per page and $2.00 certification per document.
Running an Arrest Search
You should not confuse Sarasota County arrest records with court records. The former unfold a person's incarceration history whether or not he/she was convicted in court. The latter, as mentioned above, are issued when a person stands trial, and especially when he/she is found guilty of a crime.
To find arrest records, you should pay a visit to the sheriff's website where you will run into an inmate search tool (https://www.sarasotasheriff.org/arrest-reports/index.php) showing people taken into custody by name or date.