InvestigationU

State Resources

Nevada

Nevada has no statewide case search, and it barely matters — Clark and Washoe counties hold about 88% of the population between them. Two searches gets you almost everybody. The business records are a different story.

At a glance

RecordHeld byCostOnline
Business and entity search Secretary of State Free to search Yes
UCC filings Secretary of State — UCC Free to search Yes
Professional licenses Individual boards; Gaming Control Board separately Free By board
Property and land records County recorder and county assessor Free online in the main counties By county
Court records District and justice courts, county by county Free in the main counties By county
Criminal records Department of Public Safety, Records Bureau Fee; consent generally required Consent required
Vital records Division of Public and Behavioral Health Certified copies carry a fee Yes
Unclaimed property State Treasurer Free Yes
Voter and resident records Secretary of State Free Yes

Worth knowing about Nevada

Two counties is effectively the whole state

Nevada has 17 counties and no unified public case search, which sounds like a Texas or Ohio problem. It isn’t, because of how the population sits.

Clark County — Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas — holds roughly three quarters of everyone in Nevada. Washoe County — Reno and Sparks — holds most of the rest. Together they’re about 88% of the state.

Both run good free online case search. So a Nevada name check is realistically two searches, plus a third if you have a specific rural connection.

Remember the two tiers in each: district court for felonies and larger civil, and justice court for misdemeanors, small claims and evictions. In Clark County those are separate systems. An eviction won’t show up in a district court search.

The business search won’t tell you who owns it

Nevada markets itself on corporate privacy, and the filings reflect that.

The Secretary of State search returns officers and directors for corporations, and a manager or managing member for an LLC. What it does not give you is the actual ownership — members of a Nevada LLC aren’t required to be publicly disclosed, and nominee officers are a normal, legal, widely sold service here.

So a name on a Nevada filing may be a real principal or may be somebody paid to be listed. Treat it as a lead, not an answer. The usual tells are a listed officer who appears on dozens of unrelated entities, and a registered agent address shared by thousands.

Get behind it the same way you would in Delaware: foreign registrations in the states where the business actually operates, UCC filings that name a signatory, litigation, and property records.

Record by record

Business and entity search

Open entity search →
Held by
Secretary of State
Cost
Free to search

Free entity search returning status, registered agent, and the officers or manager listed on the annual list.

Nevada requires an annual list of officers, so the names are refreshed yearly — but see above on nominees and what’s deliberately absent.

Watch out: A Nevada officer name may be a nominee. Check whether the same person appears on dozens of unconnected entities before treating them as a principal.

UCC filings

Open UCC →
Held by
Secretary of State — UCC
Cost
Free to search

UCC financing statements filed centrally with the Secretary of State.

In a state that hides ownership, the UCC record matters more than usual: a lender that financed the entity dealt with a person, and the filing names the debtor and the secured party.

Professional licenses

Held by
Individual boards; Gaming Control Board separately
Cost
Free

No single statewide lookup for professions. The one worth knowing about is the Gaming Control Board, which licenses gaming employees and operators and conducts the most rigorous background investigations of any state licensing body in the country.

A gaming license is a strong signal on its own. Getting one means somebody with subpoena power went through this person’s finances in detail.

Property and land records

Held by
County recorder and county assessor
Cost
Free online in the main counties

No statewide property search, but the same concentration applies — Clark and Washoe recorders and assessors are free, deep and cover most of the state.

Nevada is a community property state, so a spouse may hold an interest in property titled in one name only.

Held by
District and justice courts, county by county
Cost
Free in the main counties

No statewide public case search. Clark County and Washoe County both publish free online records and between them cover about 88% of the population.

Search district court and justice court separately in each — evictions, small claims and misdemeanors sit in justice court and won’t appear in a district court search.

Watch out: Clark County alone isn’t Nevada, but it’s most of it. Note which courts you actually searched before calling a result clean.

Criminal records

Open Public Safety →
Held by
Department of Public Safety, Records Bureau
Cost
Fee; consent generally required

Nevada doesn’t sell a name-based criminal history to the general public. The state check is fingerprint-based and generally requires the subject.

The practical route is the county courts — Clark and Washoe cover most of the state and both are free.

Held by
Division of Public and Behavioral Health
Cost
Certified copies carry a fee

Births and deaths from the state office, with county health offices also issuing.

Marriage records are the exception worth knowing. Clark County marriage records are public and searchable online, and Las Vegas marries an enormous number of people from everywhere else. A Clark County marriage index search is worth running on almost any subject, regardless of whether they have any other Nevada connection.

Watch out: Run the Clark County marriage index on out-of-state subjects too. That’s where a large share of American marriages were performed.

Unclaimed property

Open State Treasurer →
Held by
State Treasurer
Cost
Free

Free name search of unclaimed property. The holder named on a reported item is a confirmed bank, insurer or employer relationship with a last known address.

Voter and resident records

Open voter search →
Held by
Secretary of State
Cost
Free

Individual registration lookup confirming status and county.

Public records requests in Nevada

Statute
Nev. Rev. Stat. ch. 239 (Public Records Act)
Response deadline
Five business days
Appeal to
District court
Appeal window
No fixed deadline

Five business days to produce the record, or to state in writing that it’s unavailable and give a date when it will be. Nevada strengthened this in recent years and the deadline is real.

A prevailing requester recovers costs and reasonable attorney fees, and the statute now allows civil penalties against an agency that acted in bad faith.

The Act is construed liberally in favor of disclosure, and any exemption claimed must be identified specifically — a blanket refusal without a citation is defective on its face.

No residency requirement and no purpose requirement.

What Nevada will not give you

  • LLC membership. Not required to be disclosed. Nevada sells corporate privacy deliberately.
  • Name-based criminal history. Not available to the public. The state check is fingerprint-based.
  • Driver and vehicle records. Closed under the federal Driver’s Privacy Protection Act.
  • Sealed records. Nevada sealing removes cases from the public index.
  • Juvenile records. Not public.

Course

How to Find Out Where Someone Banks

UCC filings, business registrations and lien records all point at the same thing: who holds the money. The course walks the full sequence, including the free sources on this page and the ones that cost.

See the bank locate course

Related

Fees and procedures verified August 2026. Clerks change their counter rules more often than the statutes change — call before you drive.