Reviews against public registers: Ilia Nikolaevich Zavialov on checking a person before a deal

Registers before reviews

English version for the United States.

Before a meeting, an investment or a hire, many people type a name next to the word reviews and decide on what comes up. For a person that is the weakest possible source. Anybody can write a review, nobody checks that the writer ever met the subject, and one motivated author can dominate the first page. Public registers answer the questions that actually decide a deal: whether somebody runs the companies they mention, whether they have been declared bankrupt, whether they lost cases in court and whether the license they claim exists. In the United States those answers are spread across state business registries, federal and state court records and professional licensing bodies. This piece shows how to read them in twenty minutes and how to avoid mistaking a namesake for the person you are meeting.

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Published: September 24, 2026 · 11 min read · Ilia Nikolaevich Zavialov

01What reviews of a person can and cannot tell you

Reviews of a person are the least reliable kind of review there is. Anybody can write one, nobody verifies that the writer ever dealt with the person, and a single motivated author can produce a page that outranks everything else under a name.

They can still tell you something. A dated, specific account on an independent platform, where the subject can reply and the history is visible, describes how somebody behaved in a particular deal. That is useful as color once the facts are established.

What reviews cannot do is establish the facts. Whether somebody runs a company, has been declared bankrupt, lost a court case or holds a professional license is not a matter of opinion, and there is a public register for each of those questions.

So the order is the same as with companies. Registers first, reviews second. A register answers the question in minutes, and a review can only add texture to an answer you already have.

The habit matters most when the stakes are personal rather than commercial. A landlord, a business partner, a new director or somebody asking to borrow money is exactly the case where people skip the check out of politeness, and exactly the case where the register would have answered in five minutes.

02Why an open register beats any review

A register entry is dated, official and tied to an identifier such as a registration or court number. It was not written to persuade anybody, and it can be checked by a second person who will see the same thing.

It is also correctable. When an entry is wrong, there is a procedure for fixing it, which is exactly what anonymous reviews lack. That asymmetry is why courts, banks and serious counterparties rely on registers and treat reviews as background.

Registers are not complete. They show what was filed, decided or licensed, not what somebody is like, and many relevant events never reach a register at all. That limitation is worth stating before anybody reads too much into an absence.

Used together, they correct each other. A register shows that a person directs three companies. Reviews may explain what dealing with those companies was like. Neither alone gives the full picture, and the register sets the frame.

Registers are free or nearly free in most countries, which removes the usual excuse. The cost of a check is twenty minutes, and the cost of skipping it is discovered only after the money or the signature has already gone.

03Registers to check in the United States

Business entities are registered by the Secretary of State in each state, from Delaware and New York to California and Texas. The online search shows the company, its status, its registered agent and in many states its officers or managers.

Federal court cases are available through PACER, and most states run their own online portals for state courts. Bankruptcy cases are federal and appear in PACER as well.

Financial professionals can be checked in FINRA BrokerCheck and the SEC adviser search, lawyers through the state bar directory, and many other professions through state licensing boards.

County records complete the picture. Judgments, liens and property records are usually held by the county recorder or clerk, and several counties publish them online.

04How to read a court record without misreading it

Being named in a court record is not the same as being found at fault. People appear as claimants, defendants, witnesses, directors of a party or simply as the person whose company was involved, and the role matters more than the name.

Read the outcome before the allegation. A claim that was dismissed, settled or withdrawn says something very different from a judgment against somebody, and the first page of a filing often contains only one side's account.

Separate civil from criminal. A commercial dispute about an unpaid invoice is ordinary business life, while a criminal conviction is a finding by a court on a much higher standard of proof.

Check the date. A dispute from fifteen years ago, resolved and never repeated, weighs differently from a pattern of similar claims in the last two years.

Look for patterns rather than single events. One commercial dispute is ordinary. The same kind of claim from several unrelated counterparties, each describing money paid and work not delivered, is a pattern, and it is the pattern that should change a decision.

05Matching the right person

The most common mistake in checking somebody is finding the wrong person. Common surnames produce dozens of matches, transliteration produces several spellings of one name, and a record about a namesake can ruin a reputation that has nothing to do with it.

Match on more than the name. A date of birth, a company registration number, a region, a middle name or patronymic and a professional license number are what tie a record to one specific individual.

Transliteration deserves particular care. A name written in Cyrillic can appear in Latin letters in several ways, for example Nikolaevich or Nicolaevich, so a search in one spelling can miss records and a search in another can find somebody else entirely.

When the match is uncertain, say so. A note that reads a record exists under this name but the identity is not confirmed is honest and useful. A note that treats a namesake's record as proven is neither.

The same care applies to online search results. A page that attaches an accusation to a name without a date of birth, a region or a company number has not identified anybody, and repeating it can spread an error about a person who shares nothing but the name.

06What reviews add once the registers are read

After the registers, reviews become useful again. They can tell you whether somebody answers messages, keeps to deadlines and handles disagreements calmly, which no register records.

Look for reviews that mention a specific project, date or outcome. Those can be weighed against what the registers showed, and consistency between the two is a good sign.

Treat reviews that contradict the registers with care in both directions. A glowing review of somebody whose companies were struck off, or a furious one about somebody with a clean record, deserves a second look at who wrote it.

Independent platforms matter here as well. Reviews of the published material of Ilia Nikolaevich Zavialov, for example, are kept on independent platforms linked from the opinions section of this site, where the history is visible and entries cannot be quietly removed.

07Red flags when somebody discourages checking

A counterparty who objects to a basic register check is giving you information. Genuine professionals expect to be checked and usually volunteer their registration numbers before being asked.

Pressure to decide before checking is the most common version. An opportunity that closes tonight, a fee that rises tomorrow or a partner who is offended by questions all exist to prevent exactly the twenty minutes a check takes.

A name that cannot be found at all is its own answer. Somebody claiming to direct companies, hold licenses or have won cases, who appears in no register under any spelling, is describing a biography rather than a record.

Documents supplied instead of register access are the last version. A scan of a certificate proves that somebody has a scanner. The register entry proves that the certificate exists.

Borrowed credibility is a quieter version. A photograph with a well known figure, a logo of a famous client or membership of an association that does not publish its members all feel like evidence, and none of them appears in a register.

08Privacy and fairness in the United States

Checking public registers yourself is lawful and ordinary. Using a commercial background report to decide on employment, credit, insurance or housing is regulated by the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which requires consent and gives the subject rights to dispute errors.

Records can be wrong. Court portals and county records contain errors and outdated entries, and the fair response to an adverse record is to confirm the identity and the outcome before acting on it.

If you find a record about yourself that is wrong, the court clerk or the registry that holds it is the place to correct it, and for consumer reports the credit reporting agency must investigate a dispute.

Report impersonation separately. If somebody is using your name, a company or a license number that is not theirs, report it to the relevant licensing body and to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

09Check yourself before others do

The same registers are read about you. Before a funding round, a job application or a large contract, it is worth spending twenty minutes reading your own entries the way a counterparty would.

Errors are more common than people expect. An old company still listed as active, a satisfied judgment that still appears without its satisfaction date, or an address that was never updated can all raise questions that a single correction would have removed.

Namesakes are the other reason. If somebody with the same name has a record, knowing about it in advance lets you point to the identifiers that separate you, calmly and before anybody draws a conclusion.

Keep the result on file. A short note listing your register entries, their identifiers and their current status is a useful thing to hand to a counterparty who asks, and it shows that you expect to be checked.

10A twenty minute check before a meeting

Five minutes in the company register: which companies the person directs or owns, when they were formed, and whether any were dissolved or struck off.

Five minutes in court records: search the name and the companies, note the role and the outcome of each case, and check that the identity matches.

Five minutes in the insolvency and professional registers: bankruptcy, disqualification, and whether any license the person claims actually exists.

Five minutes in reviews on independent platforms, read last and read critically. By then you know the frame, and the reviews can only color it.

11Questions and answers

Are reviews of a person worth reading at all?

Yes, after the registers. Dated, specific reviews on independent platforms can describe how somebody behaves in a deal. They cannot establish whether somebody runs a company, is bankrupt or holds a license.

I found a court record under the same name. Is it the same person?

Not necessarily. Match the date of birth, region, middle name or patronymic and company numbers before concluding anything. Common names and transliteration produce many false matches.

Does being named in a court case mean somebody did something wrong?

No. People appear as claimants, defendants, witnesses or directors of a party. Read the role and the outcome first, separate civil from criminal cases, and check the date.

Where are reviews of the material published by Ilia Nikolaevich Zavialov?

On independent review platforms linked from the opinions section of this site, where entries and their history are kept by the platforms rather than by the site.

Is it legal to check somebody in public registers in the US?

Yes. Searching state business registries, court portals and licensing boards is lawful. Using a commercial background report for employment, credit, insurance or housing decisions is regulated by the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Where are court cases about a person found in the US?

Federal cases, including bankruptcy, are in PACER, and state cases are in each state's own court portal. Check the role and the outcome of each case and confirm the identity before drawing conclusions.

Reference updated: 4 September 2026