Public records data for sales (2026): court filings, permits, liens and contracts as buying signals
Public records data for sales means using filings that companies have to make with courts, regulators, and governments as buying signals: a lawsuit, a bankruptcy petition, an equipment lien, a building permit, a new registration, a contract award. Each one is a dated, verifiable event that most of your competitors are not watching.
Most of it is free at the source and painful to collect. Below is how OneGTM builds monitors on these records, then the court, filing, permit, registration, and government contract sources worth knowing, with what each publishes about price. We cover compliance at the end, because using public records for outreach has rules even when the data is free.
Key takeaways
- The best public records are often free: SEC EDGAR, CourtListener, openFDA, USAspending, and the federal bankruptcy courts' RSS feeds cost nothing.
- PACER charges $0.10 a page, capped at $3 a document, and waives the bill if you spend $30 or less in a quarter.
- Paid vendors such as Shovels, OpenCorporates, and HigherGov sell clean, normalized versions of messy local records.
- The value is in the event date. A permit filed last week or a lien recorded last month is a reason to call now.
- Public does not mean unregulated. Do not use records to make eligibility decisions about individuals, and respect each site's terms.
How OneGTM builds public records monitors
We write a small collector for each source, run it on a schedule, and keep only the filings that match the client's buyer. Monitors we have built read business bankruptcy petitions from the federal courts' free docket RSS feeds with CourtListener as backfill, state WARN layoff notices, final Form 5500 filings from the Department of Labor, SEC EDGAR filings, SBA loan data, UCC equipment liens, county business property rolls, and city vendor payment registers.
Claude Code
OneGTM uses this
Anthropic's coding agent. We use it to write and maintain a collector per source, since every court, county, and state agency publishes in a different format, then keep the collectors in a repo the client owns.
Best for: Building monitors on sources no vendor covers
Pricing: Included in Claude Pro ($20/month, or $17/month billed annually) and Max from $100/month.
Deepline
OneGTM uses this
GTM data platform with government file and secretary of state data providers in its catalog. We use it to enrich the companies a monitor finds, find the right contact, and push them to a sequence.
Best for: Turning a filing into a contact and a sequence
Pricing: Pay as you go at $0.10 per credit with no platform fee.
Court records and corporate filings
Lawsuits, bankruptcies, securities filings, and liens. Federal sources are national and structured; state and county courts vary widely.
PACER
The federal courts' official system for case dockets and documents in district, appellate, and bankruptcy courts. Each court also publishes a free RSS feed of recent docket entries.
Best for: Federal lawsuits and bankruptcy filings at the source
Pricing: $0.10 per page, capped at $3 per document; audio files $2.40. Fees are waived if you spend $30 or less in a quarter.
CourtListener
Free Law Project's searchable archive of federal court dockets and opinions, with a REST API and docket alerts by email or webhook.
Best for: Free search and alerts on federal dockets
Pricing: Free API at 125 requests a day by default. Higher limits through a Free Law Project membership or a commercial agreement, with no published price.
SEC EDGAR
Every filing by SEC-registered companies: 10-Ks, 8-Ks for material events such as executive changes and acquisitions, Form D private placements, and asset-level data in some filings.
Best for: Public company events and private fundraises via Form D
Pricing: Free. Up to 10 requests per second, with a user agent naming your company and contact email.
UCC411
Free national search of UCC financing statements, about 33 million filings, listing debtors and secured parties. An equipment lender as secured party shows who financed what, and when. It has an API; its terms forbid scraping the website.
Best for: Finding companies that just financed equipment
Pricing: Search is free with no account. API pricing is not published.
Business registrations, permits and regulatory records
Who formed a company, who is building, and who just cleared a regulator. Good for local and industry-specific selling.
OpenCorporates
The largest open database of company registrations, pulled from official registers worldwide, with officers, addresses, and filing history.
Best for: Company registration data across many countries
Pricing: API Essentials £2,250/year (£225/month) for 500 calls a month; Starter £6,600/year; Basic £12,000/year. Enterprise bulk data custom. Free access for qualifying public-benefit work.
Cobalt Intelligence
API that pulls business entity records from US secretary of state websites in real time, often used for business verification and lending.
Best for: Live secretary of state lookups by API
Pricing: Custom pricing.
Shovels
Building permits classified into structured records, plus zoning decisions, contractor profiles with licenses and work history, and property and resident data.
Best for: Selling to contractors or to properties about to be built or renovated
Pricing: Free with 500 credits a month and 1 year of history. Basic $599/month, Pro $999/month. Enterprise custom.
openFDA
FDA's public API for drug, device, and food data, including device clearances, recalls, and adverse event reports.
Best for: Life sciences and medical device triggers
Pricing: Free. Without a key, 1,000 requests a day; with a free key, 120,000 a day.
Government contracts and spending
Award data tells you who just won money to deliver something, which usually means hiring, subcontracting, and buying.
SAM.gov
The official source for US federal contract opportunities and entity registrations, with a public opportunities API.
Best for: Federal solicitations before they are awarded
Pricing: Free to search. The API needs a key from your SAM.gov account, with daily limits by role.
USAspending
Federal award data: who received contracts and grants, from which agency, for how much, and where the work happens.
Best for: Recent federal contract and grant winners
Pricing: Free website and API.
HigherGov
Federal and state and local opportunities, forecasts, awards, grants, and a vendor people database, with alerts, API access, and Zapier.
Best for: Small teams selling into or alongside government contractors
Pricing: Starter $500/year for 1 user; Standard $2,500/year for up to 10 users. Enterprise custom.
GovSpend
State and local government spending data across thousands of agencies plus federal contract data: what agencies buy, what they pay, the incumbent, and when contracts renew.
Best for: Selling to state and local government
Pricing: Custom pricing; request a demo.
Prices are from each vendor's site as of October 2026 and change often, so check before you buy. This is an opinionated list, not a paid ranking. Some links are referral links that may earn us a credit; that never changes what you pay or who makes the list.
Public records data sources compared
| Tool | Best for | Starting price |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Code (OneGTM uses) | Building monitors on sources no vendor covers | Claude Pro $20/month |
| Deepline (OneGTM uses) | Turning a filing into a contact and a sequence | $0.10/credit, no platform fee |
| PACER | Federal lawsuits and bankruptcy filings at the source | $0.10/page; free under $30/quarter |
| CourtListener | Free search and alerts on federal dockets | Free; higher limits custom |
| SEC EDGAR | Public company events and private fundraises via Form D | Free |
| UCC411 | Finding companies that just financed equipment | Free search |
| OpenCorporates | Company registration data across many countries | From £225/month |
| Cobalt Intelligence | Live secretary of state lookups by API | Custom pricing |
| Shovels | Selling to contractors or to properties about to be built or renovated | Free; Basic $599/month |
| openFDA | Life sciences and medical device triggers | Free |
| SAM.gov | Federal solicitations before they are awarded | Free |
| USAspending | Recent federal contract and grant winners | Free |
| HigherGov | Small teams selling into or alongside government contractors | Starter $500/year |
| GovSpend | Selling to state and local government | Custom pricing |
Starting prices as published by each vendor in October 2026.
What public records tell a seller
A public record is a dated event someone was legally required to report. That makes it more reliable than a news mention and more specific than intent data. The skill is matching the record type to what you sell.
- A lawsuit or regulatory action: legal, compliance, insurance, and crisis communications.
- A business bankruptcy, WARN layoff notice, or final retirement plan filing: buyers of assets, restructuring advisors, recruiters, and liquidators.
- A UCC lien from an equipment lender: competing lenders, insurers, and maintenance providers.
- A building permit: contractors, suppliers, security, and anyone who equips a new site.
- A new registration or a Form D raise: banking, payroll, insurance, and other services every new company needs.
- A federal or state contract award: subcontractors, staffing firms, and software the winner now needs to deliver.
How to use public records in outbound
A play we run: a collector reads every federal bankruptcy court's free docket RSS feed each day and keeps business Chapter 7 and 11 petitions, since each feed only holds about a day of entries. CourtListener fills in the first run so it does not start empty. The monitor matches each petition to the client's target industries and regions, enriches the company, finds the decision maker at the buyer's side, and posts a short digest with the docket link. Outreach goes out within a day or two of the filing.
Write about the event plainly and stick to what the record says. "Saw the Chapter 11 filing in the Southern District of Texas on the 14th" is factual and checkable. Do not guess at causes or speculate about the company's health. For sensitive events such as lawsuits and bankruptcies, a short, useful note to the right advisor beats a sales pitch to the company itself.
- Pick one record type that clearly maps to what you sell, and one region to start.
- Collect daily, since many feeds only show recent entries.
- Filter hard: entity type, industry code, size, and geography.
- Link the source record in every alert so a rep can verify it in one click.
- Measure meetings per filing type and drop the types that do not book.
Compliance and terms
This is a summary, not legal advice. Public availability does not remove every rule. The Fair Credit Reporting Act covers records used to decide a person's eligibility for credit, insurance, employment, or housing, so never use court or lien data to screen individuals unless you are set up as, or buying from, a consumer reporting agency. Many records name sole proprietors and officers, which makes them personal data under GDPR and some US state privacy laws.
Respect each source's terms. PACER charges per page and expects you to use your own account. UCC411 forbids scraping its website and offers an API instead. SEC EDGAR asks you to declare a user agent and stay under its rate limit. Several county and court sites block automated access, so check before you build.
- Sell to businesses, and keep individuals named in records out of any screening decision.
- Use official APIs and bulk downloads where they exist instead of scraping pages.
- Store the source link and date with every record so you can show where it came from.
- Honor opt-outs and delete records you no longer need.
When to get help with public records signals
The records are free or cheap. Finding the right source for your market, collecting it every day without breaking, and filtering thousands of filings down to the few that matter is the work.
OneGTM builds public records monitors on the sources your buyers show up in, matches filings to your ICP, and wires them into your CRM and outbound. You own the code and the data.
- Your best customers buy right after an event that shows up in a public filing.
- You want daily alerts on court, permit, lien, or contract records in your territory.
- You pay a vendor for records you suspect are free at the source.
- You need a monitor on a local source no vendor covers.
Public records data for sales FAQ
What public records data is useful for sales?
Is it legal to use public records for sales outreach?
How much does PACER cost?
Where can I get building permit data?
How do I track government contract awards?
Can I get court records through an API?
Is SEC EDGAR data free?
Your buyers show up in public filings before they show up anywhere else?
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