Driving in the United States

Legal Materials

The “Drunk Driving” and “Motorist Liability Laws” (torts, license revocation, etc.) laws for each state are summarized in The Lawyer’s Almanac. The “Drunk Driving” and “Lemon Laws” of each state are summarized with citations in the National Survey of State Laws. Lemon laws are posted on Lemon Law America (www.lemonlawamerica.com), though we don’t know how often the site is updated.

Driving Records

Driving records from almost all states are available from DrivingRecord.net, providing you have a permissible use. Accurint has about 20 states.

Otherwise, you can get driving records by providing the license number to a public records retrieval company, such as Accurate Credit Bureau or a competitor, again assuming you have a permissible use.

Another way: If you have some time, you could contact the relevant Department of Motor Vehicles in the relevant state and try to do the research directly (www.dmv.ca.gov/vehindustry/otherdmvs.htm).

Driver’s Licenses

You can get the information on a person’s driver’s license from Lexis for about two dozen states. The information generally includes the person’s license number, issue date and expiration date. You might also find out the person’s gender, birth date, height, weight, hair color, etc. Follow the path: “Area of Law – By Topic/Litigation Practice & Procedure/Investigate Person, Property & Business” or, to search in a particular state: “States Legal – U.S./[name of state]/Public Records/Find Licenses”.

Accurint and TLO have driver’s license records. Before you search, check which states are covered and whether the data is current.

Each state’s rules for revoking a driver’s license is summarized in The Lawyer’s Almanac (Aspen).

See Also

Automobiles
State Government Agencies
Automobiles
Automobile Valuation Information
Distance
Insurance