The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. Add to that more than 3,000 tipsheets from our national conferences on how to cover specific beats or do specific stories and you have a resource that no reporter or editor should be without. These stories and tipsheets are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Logged-in members can view the tipsheets free online:
Search results for "civil court records" ...
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First Day on the Beat: Covering Cops
Barton's tipsheet offers a list of 15 items of vital importance when covering law enforcement - from obtaining lists of sworn officers to securing statistics regarding police officers' use of force.
Tags: police; law enforcement; cops; first day on the beat; civil court records; accident reports; use of force;
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Investigating the past with results in the present
Mitchell summarizes methods for constructing investigations that probe beyond the recent past. He suggests research methods, useful records and human sourcing techniques that he employed in his IRE Award-winning investigation of unresolved murder cases during the civil rights era in Mississippi.
Tags: open records; courts; law enforcement; justice; criminal justice system; crime; public records; history; historical investigations; law
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How You, Too, Can Dig Up The Past
Nobody is going to tell you the whole story on a crime, especially if it's been a while since authorities brushed off the dust on it. Mitchell tells you how to do it yourself, how to dig into records, scour past coverage, and follow the paper trail to humanized testimonies. By the time you are finished reading Mitchell's tipsheet, you will be one step closer to thinking like a detective, like a prosecutor, and like a historian... and yes, that means "think outside the box." Mitchell tells you all from excavating the evidence to avoiding to dash your foot against a stone: what to do if someone says you cannot have the evidence, if people are shutting up, or if someone does not want to talk. He puts forth the rules of thumb and how to talk to targets.
Tags: investigation; investigating; investigative; criminal record; digging into past; sources; records; paper trail; interviews; ambush; detective; prosecutor; historian; courthouse; crime; court; docket.
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Peeking Behind the White Curtain
Dolan lists and explains a number of Web sites and databases valuable to reporters covering health care or the health beat
Tags: health care; health; medical boards; physician; medical license; civil court; databases; data; Adverse Event Reports; public records; investigative reporting
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Tipsheet on investigating a nonprofit, church-based organization
The Internal Revenue Service has different regulations for churches than most other 501c3 nonpofits. Because of this, some of the documents reporters rely upon when investigating nonprofits aren't available. Despite this, there are a number of ways reporters can uncover information about churches. In this tipsheet, Allman lists sources of documents that can help reporters find documents regarding religious organizations when it seems none are available.
Tags: religion; nonprofit; church; 501c3; Internal Revenue Service (IRS); Deeper Life Christian Church; pay databases; articles of incorporation; marriage records; civil court; family law; congregation; worship; sermons; public records
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Access To Electronic Court Records
An extensive presentation of legal issues and methodology to access electronic court records, including a list of new rules to expand public access to electronic trial court records. Also included is a draft on a Model Policy on Public Access To Court Records, prepared in February 2002 on behalf of the Conference of Chief Justices and the Conference of State Court Administrators by The national Center for State Courts and The Justice Management Institute.
Tags: legal; courts; electronic records; SJI; Judicial Council of California; Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts
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Investigating Health Care Professionals through the National PRactitioner Data Bank
If using the NPDP, you'll need Dolan's tipsheet. "The National Practitioner Data Bank, a federal repository for adverse actions taken against health care professiona,s is maintained by the Divsiion of Qualty Assurance of teh Deptartment of Health and Human Services. IT contains more than 260,000 reporters agains 164,000 practitioners since 1990."
Tags: doctors; malpractice; civil court records; medical cases; controlled substances; medical boards; Drug Enforcement Agency; DEA; licensing; CAR