In the fall of 2018, Idaho completed the transition of all forty-four counties from the legacy system, iStars (Data Repository), to their new online portal, iCourts. Due to this transition, users needing to verify the identity on a record were faced with a challenge. The legacy system iStars allowed users to search records by name and DOB statewide or by individual county, and by case number. On the new portal, iCourts, users lost the functionality to search by DOB. Users can search by name, including a phonetic search, and case type. Users may also include the booking number, FBI number, SO number, or filter by case type or status and file date range. The results only display a year of birth. Depending on need and depth of due diligence this may be enough, but not for a large industry of users.
Recognizing the gap it caused in the verification process, in 2019, the Supreme court released a Party Verification site. On this site, registered users were then able to search by party to verify the date of birth on file. In case you aren’t familiar with this site, it can be found at https://idcourts.service-now.com/public. Below are some of the parameters for using the site:
- Data verification is available on cases from 1995 to present. Note that some information for older cases may be available on this site.
- The site provides the capability to verify an unlimited number of parties in one search. You must provide the following for each party:
- Subject's name, may include up to 6 variations of the first name
- Date of birth
- Specific case number(s), may include up to 16 case numbers per party
- Will only verify the information provided
- Please note that there is a strong disclaimer that includes the following, "THE SERVICE IS DISTRIBUTED ON AN "AS-IS" BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF TITLE OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR USE."
At the time of release, the cost was $6.00 per party. Fast forward nearly three years later, the fee for using this service has more than doubled. Effective January 1, 2022, the price increased to $16.00 per party. An alternative to paying the fee would be to have a court clerk verify identity. Although, I don’t know if any courts are providing since this service has become available.