Domain dispute needs a quick answer

Can someone help clear this up please?

[rycrostud]

When doing a WHOIS lookup how do you tell who is the legal owner of the domain?

Is it the organisation or person it was registered for, or is it the name given as the admin?

I'm trying to sort out a dispute for a client.

[hayluke]

the admin, tech and billing contacts have no legal ownership of a domain. The legal owner of the domain is the organisation/individual it was registered for..

The contacts are often representatives of the ISP who registered the name.

[rycrostud]

Is it possible to find out this info by doing a WHOIS lookup?

[hayluke]

If you know who the site registrar is then you should be able to find the registrant details on their site.

[rycrostud]

Thanks for the advice. I'll see what I can dig up.