State Resources
Rhode Island
The cheapest state criminal check in the country at $5, and it includes pending prosecutions. Free business and UCC search. Land records sit with 39 city and town clerks, and licensing is scattered across several agencies.
At a glance
| Record | Held by | Cost | Online |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business and entity search | Business Services Division, Department of State | Free to search | Yes |
| UCC filings | UCC Division, Department of State | Free to search | Yes |
| Professional licenses | Dept. of Business Regulation; Dept. of Health; Dept. of Labor and Training | Free | Yes |
| Property and land records | 39 city and town clerks | Copy fees set by the municipality | Varies by town |
| Court records | Rhode Island Judiciary | Free to search; copy fees apply | Yes |
| Criminal records | Bureau of Criminal Identification, Attorney General’s Office | $5 state · $35 national | In person or by mail |
| Vital records | RI Department of Health, or the city or town clerk | Set by statute; check current fee | Yes |
| Unclaimed property | Office of the General Treasurer | Free | Yes |
| Voter and resident records | Department of State, Elections Division; local boards of canvassers | Fee set by the Division | By request |
Worth knowing about Rhode Island
A $5 criminal check that includes pending cases
Rhode Island charges $5 for a state criminal background check through the Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Identification. That is the lowest fee of any state repository in the country. A national check through the same office is $35.
What comes back is fingerprint-supported arrests that resulted in a conviction or its equivalent, plus matters pending prosecution at the time of the inquiry, covering both misdemeanours and felonies. Pending cases are the valuable part and most states will not show them to you.
BCI handles both name-based and fingerprint-based requests. In person or by post at the Attorney General’s office.
By post it is a check or money order for exactly $5, payable to BCI. Cards and cash are not accepted by mail.
Everything is municipal, and the state is small enough that it works
Rhode Island has counties on paper but they do almost nothing. There are no county recorders. Land records, vital records and local filings are all held by the clerks of the 39 cities and towns.
In a bigger state that would be a problem. Here it is manageable — Rhode Island is 48 miles long, and if you do not know which municipality holds a record you can realistically work through the plausible ones by telephone in an afternoon.
Providence, Warwick, Cranston and Pawtucket hold a large share of the population between them, so start there when the town is unknown.
Record by record
Business and entity search
Open search →- Held by
- Business Services Division, Department of State
- Cost
- Free to search
Corporations, LLCs and partnerships, searchable free by entity name, by officer, and by resident agent.
Annual reports name the officers and directors with addresses as at the filing date. Pull several years and you have a dated address history on the people behind the entity.
UCC filings
Open UCC search →- Held by
- UCC Division, Department of State
- Cost
- Free to search
Statewide Article 9 financing statements, searchable free around the clock. Search on "begins with" or "exact match".
A UCC-1 names the debtor, the secured party and the collateral, which routinely names the bank behind a boat, a truck or a piece of equipment.
Professional licenses
Open DBR lookup →- Held by
- Dept. of Business Regulation; Dept. of Health; Dept. of Labor and Training
- Cost
- Free
Licensing is split across three departments, which is the awkward part of working Rhode Island.
- DBR — insurance, commercial licensing, gaming and athletics, banking, design professionals, accountancy, securities
- Department of Health — all health professions, at healthri.mylicense.com
- Department of Labor and Training — trades and occupational licences
If a licence does not turn up in one, try the other two before concluding the person is unlicensed.
Property and land records
- Held by
- 39 city and town clerks
- Cost
- Copy fees set by the municipality
No county recorders. Deeds, mortgages, liens and attachments are recorded with the clerk of the city or town where the land sits, indexed by grantor and grantee.
Several of the larger municipalities publish an online index; the smaller ones do not. Assessments and plat maps come from the municipal assessor.
Court records
Open judiciary →- Held by
- Rhode Island Judiciary
- Cost
- Free to search; copy fees apply
The Judiciary runs a public portal covering Supreme, Superior, District, Family, Workers’ Compensation and Traffic Tribunal case information. Search by party name.
Certified copies and record requests go through the court’s records request process rather than the portal.
Criminal records
Open background check →- Held by
- Bureau of Criminal Identification, Attorney General’s Office
- Cost
- $5 state · $35 national
Name-based or fingerprint-based. Returns arrest charges, dispositions and sentence data for matters adjudicated in Rhode Island — and matters pending prosecution at the time you ask.
$5 for the state check. $35 if you need the national fingerprint check through the same office.
Vital records
Open vital records →- Held by
- RI Department of Health, or the city or town clerk
- Cost
- Set by statute; check current fee
Birth, marriage and death records from the Department of Health, or from the clerk of the city or town where the event occurred.
Access is restricted. Rhode Island requires a qualifying relationship or a demonstrated interest — these are not open public records.
Unclaimed property
Open search →- Held by
- Office of the General Treasurer
- Cost
- Free
Free name search over dormant accounts, uncashed cheques and insurance proceeds. The address on a reported item is the one the holder had on file when they reported it.
Voter and resident records
- Held by
- Department of State, Elections Division; local boards of canvassers
- Cost
- Fee set by the Division
The central voter registration list is available under conditions set by statute, with restrictions on commercial use. Local boards of canvassers hold the municipal lists.
Public records requests in Rhode Island
- Statute
- Access to Public Records Act, R.I. Gen. Laws § 38-2
- Response deadline
- 10 business days, extendable by 20 more
- Appeal to
- Chief administrative officer, then the Attorney General or Superior Court
- Appeal window
- Set by the agency’s own APRA procedure
APRA gives a public body ten business days to respond. That can be extended by a further twenty business days where the request is voluminous, the body has a queue, or the records are genuinely hard to retrieve — so thirty business days is a lawful outcome and you should plan for it.
A denial is appealed internally to the chief administrative officer of the public body first. After that you can complain to the Attorney General, who investigates APRA complaints and can bring suit, or file in Superior Court yourself.
The Attorney General route is the practical one. It costs nothing and the same office that prosecutes APRA violations is the one reading your complaint.
What Rhode Island will not give you
- Driver and vehicle records. Closed under the federal Driver’s Privacy Protection Act.
- Vital records. Restricted. You need a qualifying relationship or a demonstrated interest.
- Sealed and expunged records. Rhode Island expunges relatively readily, and expunged matters will not appear on a BCI check.
- Statewide land records. They do not exist. Records live with 39 municipal clerks.
- Juvenile records. Family Court juvenile matters are closed.
Related
- Massachusetts — the neighbouring state
- Connecticut — the other neighbour
- UCC filings name the lender
- Finding the owner of record on a property
- Appealing a public records denial
Fees and procedures verified August 2026. Clerks change their counter rules more often than the statutes change — call before you drive.