One of the topics that came up during the Civil Beat panel discussion of corruption is how we do our work as investigative reporters. By “work”, I’m not necessarily speaking of paid employment. Work is something done seriously, with focus, whether for pay or as an uncompensated activity. A “hobby,” if you will. I’m mostly retired in the paid-employment sense, but still work hard in that other sense of using my experience and skills to work on issues of import.

Along those lines, I decided to share the bookmarks I’ve collected to search for public records I use daily when digging into a story or just working around the fringes trying to get a better sense of whether there is a story.

I have these set up in a separate bookmark folder in my browser for quick access. It’s not an exhaustive list of resources. It’s a starter kit of useful links, you could say.

If you’ve got other suggestions, please share them.

They aren’t in any particular order, just where they landed as I gathered them in one place.

I’ll just walk through the list from the top.

• Judiciary opinions. This goes to a list of appellate decisions in Hawaii state courts. It is often a source of detailed information about people and situations that is unavailable elsewhere.

• Hawaii Business Express. This is the business search via the Business Registration Division of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs. If you’re looking for info on a business, this is one place to start. You can learn when a business was first registered, its current status, past business filings (name changes, trademarks, change of officers, etc). Searching and basic information is free, and you can also download documents for a fee of $1 per page.

• eCourt Documents. This is a link to the Judiciary Electronic Filing and Service System. It’s used to access dockets of most state court cases and to download copies of documents, again for a fee. I have a subscription which allows unlimited downloads, and make heavy use of it when digging into a story.

• Hawaii Information Service. This is subscription service which maintains a computer database of public records. Although primarily used by realtors for tracking real property records, it also includes value-added searches of state business registration and professional/vocational licensing. You can do searches here that can’t be done on the free public systems. Expensive, but worth every cent. I don’t remember when I first subscribed. It was a real splurge, but I’ve never once regretted it. A goldmine for reporters, investigators, lawyers, as well as realtors.

• Hawaii Legal Research. A useful compilation of links used in legal research, current and historical. When I’m kind of stuck, I’ll browse these links for ideas of how to proceed.

• Conveyances. This links to the basic search at the Bureau of Conveyances. If you are researching a person or business, you can check for mortgages and other secured loans, liens, trace real property ownership and transfers, judgements, etc. Again, copies of documents are available for a fee. Under normal non-Covid circumstances, you can go to the bureau and inspect documents without any fee.

• iLind.net Log-in. A quick link when I’m updating something on my own WordPress blog.

• Professional and Vocational Licensing. This is a free search through individuals and businesses with licenses issued by the state. Everything from contractors and electricians to vehicle salespersons and massage therapists. You’ll have to look up the list of license categories.

• Complaints. Search consumer complaints against licensed individuals and businesses filed with the state’s Regulated Industries Complaints Office.

• Honolulu Advertiser–Search the for stories appearing in the former Advertiser before its merger with the Honolulu Star-Bulletin in 2010. This search is via Newspapers.com.

• Pacific Business News. I subscribe to PBN for their current business news, but also for their excellent searchable archive of past stories.

• Campaign Spending Commission. Go to the source for information on candidates and noncandidate committees (businesses, unions, and political action committees), campaign contributions, etc.

• RECAP. An add-on utility (I use it with Firefox) for searching the PACER system of federal court records. When a RECAP user pays to download a file, a copy is automatically uploaded to RECAP and is then available for free for subsequent users. It often can save you real money when researching a case.

• HPD Arrest Logs. I just recently added this link. It’s raw data, but I’ve made good use of it so far.

• Newspapers.com. Worth every penny of the annual subscription fee.