Net Income for the Quarter Increases 58 Percent

SANTA ANA, Calif., - The First American Corporation (NYSE: FAF), the nation's leading diversified provider of business information and related products and services, today announced all-time record results for the fourth quarter and year ended Dec. 31, 2002:

For the Three Months Ended For the Twelve Months Ended
December 31 December 31

2002	2001
2002	2001
Revenues	$ 1.37 billion
$ 1.07 billion
$ 4.70 billion
$ 3.75 billion
Net income	$ 82.8 million
$ 52.3 million
$ 234.4 million
$ 167.3 million
Net income per diluted share	$1.01
$.68
$2.92
$2.27

Summary of Operations

" 2002 was a banner year," stated Parker S. Kennedy, president of The First American Corporation. "Record levels of home purchases and refinancings, spurred by historically low interest rates, produced record-high transaction volume in 2002 and contributed to impressive financial results in the real estate-related segments of our Financial Services and Information Technology groups."

Quarterly Financial Highlights

Financial Services Group:

• Record operating revenues for the fourth quarter 2002 were $1.05 billion, an increase of 28 percent when compared with $817.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2001.
• Pretax income was a record $110.8 million, an increase of 83 percent when compared with $60.4 million in the prior year quarter.
• Pretax margins improved to 10.4 percent compared with 7.3 percent for the fourth quarter 2001 and 9.6 percent for the third quarter 2002.

Information Technology Group:

• Record operating revenues for the fourth quarter 2002 were $300.4 million, an increase of 28 percent compared with $234.7 million for the prior year quarter.
• Pretax income was a record $77.0 million, an increase of 31 percent when compared with $58.9 million in the prior year quarter.
• Pretax margins improved to 24.7 percent compared with 24.2 percent for the fourth quarter 2001.

2003 Outlook

Kennedy continued: "Order counts in our real estate-related businesses remain at elevated levels, which should bode well for the company's results during the first half of 2003. Our focus continues to be on steady margin improvement through technology initiatives, back-office consolidation and solid expense controls. In addition, we are excited about our merger with US Search, which is expected to close in the second quarter 2003. This new public entity, which will be named First Advantage Corporation, will provide significant growth opportunities in the rapidly expanding screening services industry."

Source: The First American Corporation