You are browsing the archives of June 2009.

Ron Lieber’s recent “Your Money” column made a good point about the difference between a “credential” and a membership in a professional organization. Lieber’s point concerned members of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors but it could relate to any of the thousands of professional organizations that exist.

This week, the British Parliament published expense reports for its members online in response to an extensive court and legislative battle originating from a five-year-old Freedom of Information request. The records made available by Parliament are redacted versions of expense reports that had been leaked last month to the Daily Telegraph, resulting in the recent scandal that has shaken up British government.

When an elected official, candidate or other public figure claims to reside in one place but actually resides elsewhere, they become vulnerable to allegations of carpetbagging, potentially resulting in disqualification to hold an elected office or other legal consequences. Two recent instances of suspected carbetbagging illustrate the ways in which public records can be used to demonstrate how a person does not actually reside at their claimed residence.

In our previous post we described some of the information that can be gained from Articles of Incorporation. Some companies which are not registered as corporations with the Secretary of State may instead be registered as a Fictitious Business.

Following the recent expenses scandal that has shaken up British Parliament, this week Prime Minister Gordon Brown has appointed World Wide Web creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee to help make British government data more Internet accessible to the public over the next few months.

Corporate records, such as Articles of Incorporation and Annual Reports, can be a powerful tool to verify a company’s existence and good standing, identify conflicts of interest, learn about a subject’s potential wealth, or verify resume claims.

When vetting a company or business that manufactures a product, one important resource is to submit a FOIA request to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) for any complaints related to the company. While the CPSC provides some statistics and general information online, more specific inquiries must be done on a case-by-case basis.

Most documents are unquestionably public records; however, electronic messages are more intangible and thus more difficult to categorize as public records. Elected and appointed officials’ increasing reliance on e-mail and text messages for communication requires defining the extent to which these are public records.