• On January 13, 2005, in United States v. Cummings, the Seventh Circuit Court defined skip tracing as the practice of collection agencies employing people to discover the whereabouts of debtors by using identifying information, such as debtors' names and social security numbers. This process is done primarily through electronic means, such as driver license records, registration records and court files. In Alabama, there are a few statutes that deal with the practice of skip tracing.
  
  

Licensing

• In Alabama, there is no statute that requires skip tracers to get a license. However, if someone who owns a detective agency performs the function of skip tracing (which is usually the case), Alabama Code § 40-12-93 (Detective agencies) requires that that person pay a $200 license tax for the privilege of doing so.
  
  

Sunshine Law

• Alabama has one of the oldest sunshine laws in the country. These sunshine laws permit any citizen access to any information that kept in any government database. Alabama Code § 36-12-40 (Rights of citizens to inspect and copy public writings; exceptions) states: "Every citizen has a right to inspect and take a copy of any public writing of this state, except as otherwise expressly provided by statute."
  
  This is the law that makes skip tracing permissible, as was articulated in Ala. Op. Atty. Gen. 98-00157 (Jun. 4, 1998), which said that no government agency can "restrict access to public information merely because a person intends to use the record for personal gain."
  
  

Records Exempt

• There are statutes that provide exemptions to the sunshine law for certain public records. These exempt records include, but are not limited to, banking records, juvenile court records, hospital records, probation reports, Medicaid records, tax returns, and financial statements.