Introducing Petty Trace: We'll Find Them For You
You finally decided to do something about the money someone owes you. You know who did it. You know what they owe. But there's one problem you didn't expect.
You don't have their address.
Maybe the contractor who took your $3,000 deposit and stopped answering moved to a different state. Maybe your old landlord sold the building and you have no idea where they went. Maybe it's an ex-business partner who changed their number and deleted their socials.
You know their name. Maybe their Instagram. Maybe where they used to work. But you can't send a demand letter to a vibe.
That's exactly why we built Petty Trace.
What is Petty Trace?
Petty Trace is a skip-trace service built directly into your PettyLawsuit case. If you don't have the other person's mailing address, you don't have to figure it out on your own. Just check the box that says "I don't have their address" during the defendant step, tell us what you do know, and our team handles the rest.
No hiring a private investigator. No spending hours on people-search websites that want $40 a pop and give you outdated results. We find them so your case keeps moving.
How it works
The whole point is that you don't have to do anything extra.
Start your case like normal. Enter the defendant's name and whatever details you have. Social media profiles, where they work, a phone number, an old address.
Check the Petty Trace box. When you get to the defendant's address, select "I don't have their address." That triggers Petty Trace.
We find them. Our skip-trace team uses the info you gave us to locate a verified mailing address. This usually takes 1 to 3 business days.
Your case keeps moving. Once we have the address, we update your case and your Petty Notice goes out via USPS Certified Mail. You don't have to come back and do anything.
What kind of info helps?
Anything you've got. The more details, the faster we track them down:
- Social media profiles (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok)
- Where they work or their job title
- Phone number or email address
- City, state, or zip code they might live in
- Old addresses or where they used to live
- Vehicle info, license plate, or anything else you remember
Even one of these can be enough. You'd be surprised how much a LinkedIn profile or an old phone number can narrow things down.
Why this matters
Here's the thing most people don't realize until they're already trying to take action: you can't send a demand letter to someone you can't find. A demand letter needs a real mailing address. Small claims court requires proper service of process, which means delivering paperwork to a physical address.
Before Petty Trace, if you didn't have their address, your options weren't great. You could hire a private investigator for $200 to $500. You could spend hours on sketchy people-search sites that may or may not have current data. Or you could just give up.
A lot of people gave up. Not because they didn't want to fight, but because not having an address felt like the end of the road.
Petty Trace removes that wall. It's built into your case. No extra fees. No separate service. No waiting for some third-party company to get back to you.
Who is this for?
Anyone who's owed money by someone they can't physically reach:
- A contractor who took your deposit, did half the work, and disappeared
- A former landlord who moved and is ignoring your calls about the security deposit they kept
- Someone who borrowed money and blocked you on everything
- A client who ghosted after you delivered the work
- An ex-business partner who vanished with the profits
If you know their name and at least one other detail, Petty Trace can work with that.
The bottom line
Someone owes you money and they think they can disappear? That's not how this works anymore.
Petty Trace is live now. If you've been putting off taking action because you don't know where they are, that excuse just expired.