Virginia Public Records Online Search

The Freedom of Information Act has mandated the local government of each state to allow its citizens to access public documents. Virginia Public Records are one of the documents that have been open to the local residents of Virginia.

Generally, public documents are categorized into two: family related documents and crime related files. In the state of Virginia, family related documents include birth, death and marriage records. It also includes the divorce records of the state. Crime related documents are those that are submitted to police department such as arrest files and police records.

Each type of record may have different information that can be found on it. However, all of the public documents in Virginia have the names of the people involved along with the date of birth and the county of occurrence. The document would contain details about the event. For birth and death, one can find information about the when and where the person was born or died. For crime related documents, details about the committed crime and the people involved are indicated on the file.

Each document has its own special purpose. Generally, the records are being requested for personal and legal matters. Background check is one of the common reasons for accessing public records in Virginia. Genealogy research is also the one of the primary use of family related documents such as birth and death records.

When one wants to obtain a copy of any of the public records one has to know the right place to obtain it in order to avoid delay. For family related documents, the office of the Vital Records Section of the state can provide it. Crime related documents can be obtained at the office of the Department of criminal justice Information Services or any of the law enforcing agencies such as the police department or the local county courthouse. Not all of the document can be obtained by anybody. Some only allow the person himself to get his own file such as crime related files; however, exemptions can be given provided that an authorization from the individual is given. Fees would also depend per county and the type of document being requested. The price can be per page or per request. One common thing about public document in Virginia is that it takes time to get a copy of a document. This has been changed with the development of the Internet.

The use of the Internet to deliver information to the people has been explored by many. The state of Virginia is just one of the many who use the internet to make the retrieval of public documents easier. There are many websites that offer to search for free public records. Doing the search through the Internet is a lot faster and convenient which is why it is becoming popular among the citizens of Virginia.