This article will help you:
- Understand what US Municipal Criminal Records Checks entail and why they’re an important part of a background report
- Decide whether to add a Municipal Criminal Records Check to your package
A municipal criminal court is a lower court that usually tries criminal misdemeanors such as traffic misdemeanors or infractions for which there is no jail time required in sentencing. Even though municipal records are minor in nature, they can be relevant to employers in certain regulated industries such as transportation networks (TNCs) and healthcare.
Municipal Criminal Records Checks may yield criminal acts that are minor violations of state law as well as criminal acts that are in violation of city, or municipal, law. The criminal record search covers a history of seven years form the date of request. Detailed information on criminal records found may include all or some of the following:
- Date of offense
- Charges
- Plea
- Disposition
- Sentence
Unlike county-level superior or central courts, municipal courts are considered secondary sources of possible criminal records. Each county contains a different number of municipal courts: or example, some may have upwards of 10 municipal courts, while some may only have one or two.