You can't take anybody else to court or even to the police if they harm you. Any of these actions may require a social security number or cause the creation of a paper trail which a professional can use to find you. It is much harder to go underground now than it was in the 1960's. There are too many databases with your name and numbers in them. The more outwardly successful you are, the more numbers will trail you.
Nobody living a normal life in an industrialized country today is hard to find.
I warn you as you begin, however, that you can't always trace somebody at a distance, in the anonymous comfort of your home. One private investigator has written about methods for tracing people by means of their paper trails. While reading Tracing Made Simple , think very hard before you decide to try this sort of thing yourself. That's another way of saying that some PI techniques require your willingness to lie convincingly. Some techniques could place you in close physical contact with friends or associates of your search target.