What is skip tracing?

Skip tracing is the process of locating a person whose whereabouts are unknown or who has actively moved to avoid being found. The term originates from "skipping town" — the person has "skipped" out, and the tracer's job is to find them.

In legal context, skip tracing is used to:

• Find defendants who have moved without leaving a forwarding address
• Locate witnesses for trial subpoenas
• Find heirs in probate matters
• Locate judgment debtors for collection
• Find missing or estranged family members

How skip tracing works

A modern skip trace combines public + paid database lookups:

• Credit-header data (LexisNexis, TLOxp, IRB) — gives name + addresses without violating FCRA
• Utility connections — gas, electric, cable accounts
• DMV records — where permitted under DPPA
• Voter registration
• Social media intelligence (OSINT)
• Phone number records — landline + cellular
• Property records + deed transfers
• Court records — divorce, bankruptcy, criminal

Once a candidate address is identified, the skip tracer typically verifies it via direct field check before reporting it as actionable.

FCRA + privacy compliance

Skip tracing for litigation support is a permissible purpose under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) §604(a)(3)(F) — but only when documented as such. Servd captures the purpose on every skip-trace order so the audit trail is bulletproof.

What you get back from Servd

A skip trace report includes:

• Best 1–3 candidate addresses with confidence scores
• Phone numbers (when available)
• Date of last known activity at each address
• Field-verification notes (if performed)

What it costs

$80 standalone flat fee. Or free when bundled with a service order — if the address you give us bounces, we automatically run a trace and try the next-best candidate at no extra cost.