Massachusetts

Search every domestic and foreign entity registered in the state, by entity name, officer name, or registered agent.

Search by individual name, not just company name. Massachusetts indexes officers and directors, so running a person returns every entity they appear on — which routinely surfaces businesses a subject never mentioned.

Annual reports are the part people skip. Each one carries the officers, directors, principal office address and registered agent as of that filing date. Pull five years and you have a dated address history and a list of associates, free.

A UCC-1 names the debtor, the secured party and the collateral. Which means it frequently names the bank.

There is a second database most people miss: the Liens database, held by the same office and searched separately. State and federal tax liens live there, not in the UCC index. Run both names, every time.

Covers most trades and professions. Physicians sit separately with the Board of Registration in Medicine, which publishes disciplinary history and malpractice payouts.

A licence file is worth more than a yes or no. It carries a business address, a licence history, and any discipline — and an active licence requires a current mailing address on file.

All twenty-one registries, free, with scanned images, no login. One of the better land records systems in the country — do not pay anyone for a Massachusetts deed search.

Search by grantor and grantee name rather than address and you pick up mortgages, discharges, liens, attachments and homestead declarations attached to a person rather than to one parcel.

Assessed values and parcel maps come from the town assessor, not the registry.

Civil dockets across Superior, District, Housing, Land, and Probate and Family are searchable statewide by party name, free, with no account.

Small claims, evictions, contract disputes, divorces and probate all surface by name. Each docket gives the case number, parties, counsel of record and the full entry history. For asset work, Probate and Family and Land Court are where the material is.

Criminal cases are on the portal too — but you cannot get to them by name. Public criminal searches require the exact docket number, a case type inside a 30-day date window, or a ticket or citation number for traffic matters. If you already have the docket number from somewhere else, you can read the case.

The courthouse terminals are the workaround. Every courthouse in Massachusetts has a public access terminal, and those give considerably more than the web portal does. If a case matters, it is worth the drive.

Massachusetts has no name-searchable public criminal database. What it has is a paid request system, and the version open to the public is deliberately thin.

Anyone can file an Open Access CORI request at $50 per request — DCJIS publishes it in its own fee table alongside the $25 personal request. Payment by mail is money order or bank cashier’s or treasurer’s check; not a personal check.

It returns convictions only, inside these windows:

• Misdemeanours — one year
• Most felonies — two years
• Felonies punishable by five years or more — ten years
• Murder, manslaughter and certain sex offences — no limit

An individual pulling their own record gets far more, for $25, waived entirely on public benefits or at or below 125% of the federal poverty guidelines. If your subject is also your client, have them pull it themselves.

Each request includes a ten-year record search.

• In person — $20 per copy
• By mail, standard — $32, 15 to 20 business days
• By mail, expedited — $42, about 10 business days
• Online or phone via VitalChek — $54 first copy, $42 after

Going to the clerk of the city or town where the event happened is usually faster and often cheaper than going to the state. Boston, Worcester and Springfield all handle their own and turn requests around at the counter.

Marriage intentions are filed where the couple applied, which is not necessarily where they married. Divorce sits in Probate and Family Court, and the docket stays public even where the file is impounded — the index tells you the case exists, who filed, when, and how it ended.

Uncashed payroll cheques, forgotten deposits, insurance proceeds, dormant accounts. Searchable by name.

Two uses. It is money in state custody with your subject’s name on it, which matters in judgment work. And each record carries the address on file when the property was reported — a free, dated address for someone who has gone quiet.

The annual street list — see the section above. It is the strongest people-locating record in the state and it is not online. You have to ask the clerk.

The statewide voter registration file is available for purchase from the Elections Division at the Secretary of the Commonwealth, subject to restrictions on commercial use.