why do lawyer hire private investigators?

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Why do law firms need to use private investigators?

Why Law Firms Need To Use Private Investigators? If you work at a law firm, you're going to want to form a positive relationship with private investigators. If you work at a law firm, you're going to want to form a positive relationship with private investigators. The right detective will be able to help you through each step of your investigation.

What do lawyers do differently from investigators?

Many investigators subscribe to databases that law firms do not, and investigators spend years cultivating human sources to help them. Therefore, lawyers enjoy balance in their cases. They get to focus on what they do best, rather than getting bogged down in investigative work. Helping in Diverse Areas

How do private investigators gather evidence?

Private investigators use effective, legal methods to gather evidence that holds up in court. For example, a criminal lawyer may need to locate a witness. This witness has potentially important testimony to offer and could have relevant evidence in his or her possession. To locate witnesses, private investigators are able to:

How can a private investigator help a financial fraud case?

Take an attorney defending a financial fraud case. A private investigator with document examination experience can expose forgeries, unmask alterations, verify the authenticity of documents and examine handwriting and ink types.

Why do private investigators do research?

When researching a company, a private investigator is able to compile a history and understand its inner workings. He is then able to understand the different individuals of the company and the dynamics between them. Often times, a better understanding of inner workings of a company provides leverage that an attorney can use in her case.

What is a private investigator?

Private investigators are great at compiling the history of a person or company. PI’s often comb through public records and interview people close to the individual in question. They are able to gather information that helps gain a better understanding of a person or a company as a whole. In some cases, a private investigator might uncover a previous charge of a similar nature. In others, he might discover information that provides greater insight to a motive for a crime. Private investigators are more equipped (with time and skill) to compile a full history than an attorney.

Do private investigators have time to pour over evidence?

Attorneys do not always have time to pour over evidence the way a private investigator can. PI’s often revisit crime scenes to find out if any details have been overlooked. They are experts in taking clear, informative crime scene photos that can help in an attorney’s case. Private investigators will often re-interview witnesses to look for details the attorney may have missed. Re-interviewing witnesses can be useful to see if a witness has changed his testimony. Private investigators may uncover a witness’s motive for giving a certain testimony or discover new important witnesses that had been previously overlooked.

Can an attorney find a witness?

In some cases, an attorney may be trying to locate someone whose full name they do not know. They could be going off of a first name, a description, or a nickname of some sort. Private investigators shine in these situations. It is a private investigator’s job to find what is hidden. Therefore, PI’s are great at finding people who do not wish to be found.

Can an attorney become an expert in every field?

On top of a full caseload, it would be very difficult for an attorney to become an expert in every field that her cases involved. Because private investigators are in the business of knowing people, they are a great resource to find experts. In some cases, the investigators themselves may be experts in the field that an attorney requires. In most cases, though, a private investigator will have a list of contacts that will include experts in almost every field. A private investigator’s contacts can be extremely valuable to provide an attorney with the knowledge necessary to go forward with a case.

What is the goal of a lawyer?

Lawyers work with many different clients on many different types of cases. Their primary goal is to find enough information and evidence to build a strategy. This strategy is what the lawyer will use to win in court. They will also prep their client with their strategy so that the client is aware of what will happen in court.

Do private investigators work in Ontario?

In Ontario, private investigators run different types of surveillance operations for many different reasons. It might surprise you to learn that lawyers hire private investigators all the time to set up surveillance on an individual.

How Working With A Private Investigator Can Benefit An Attorney's Case

An attorney will have the legal knowledge of what evidence they require to prove their case in court and if they don't have the level of evidence needed, the attorney will often hire an investigator to look for it.

Locating People, Witnesses, Heirs

Attorneys and lawyers hire private investigators for help in locating people for a wide variety of reasons. A private investigator will have the experience to locate potential witnesses.

Preparation for Cross Examination

One of the most common reasons why attorneys hire private investigators is for gathering pertinent information for an upcoming trial. For example, a private investigator can discreetly follow a witness or a suspect to gather and report detailed information about their background, behaviors, and associations.

Depositions and Public Records

The role of a private investigator is continually evolving. Previously, the bulk of a private investigator’s duties involved following subjects and/or staking out a subject to learn their habits.

Insurance Claims and Background Checks

When someone is claiming to receive medical treatment for an injury, whether it be work related or from an auto accident, proving an injury actually exists can sometimes be difficult. One of the benefits of utilizing the experience of private investigators is their ability of discreetly staking people out who may not have a true injury claim.

Surveillance and Digital Research

Before a divorce attorney draws up and serves divorce papers to a cheating partner, their goal is to first try to prove infidelity. One of the most common reasons lawyers hire private investigators is for cheating spouse investigations to determine if indeed a spouse is cheating.

What is a private investigator?

Private Investigators are have a lot of experience handling different types of cases and can share their expertise with you. For example, an experienced PI can help you with financial investigations or finding stolen and hidden assets. Many are also experienced in fraud investigations, such as insurance and accident fraud. Private investigators use programs and software that helps them analyze information about prior insurance claims the subject may have files, as well as any suspicious activity that comes up in the searches.

How to be an investigator?

An investigator can help you with the following tasks: 1 Prepare, serve and file legal documents such as contracts, appeals, and affidavits. 2 Conduct research from archived public records and specialized databases. 3 Gather and verify evidence 4 Validate existing evidence. 5 Investigate and recreate crime and accident scenes. 6 Work closely with law enforcement to gather additional facts.

What is a PI?

If you’re having trouble locating a witness who does not wish to be found, a PI can be your best friend. Investigators often specialize in the art of “skip-tracing,” and with the assistance of sophisticated databases plus the knowledge of developing and following up with sources, they can locate even the most hard-to-find individuals.

What is the law industry in 2011?

The May 5, 2011 edition of The Economist ran a two-page story about the legal industry in America. They used Howrey (one of the world’s top 100 law firms) as an example of sea-change facing the profession. Aside from bankruptcy, securities litigation, and regulation issues, the world of 700-member law firms has been hit hard. Gone are the lucrative mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and it seems that clients are seeking, even demanding, alternatives to the ubiquitous billable hour, at an attorney’s standard rate.

Can you be an expert in everything?

You can’t do the fishing for case-making facts as thoroughly as you would like. And you can’t be an expert in everything.

Why is it important to hire a private investigator?

A private investigator can ensure fairness, leveling the playing field and providing the defendant with a neutral and impartial investigator to seek and gather the facts so that they can be assessed when the defendant presents his or her defense. This ultimately highlights how important it is for a criminal defense attorney to hire a professional private investigator who knows how to conduct a thorough and professional criminal investigation.

What does a private investigator do in criminal defense?

Throughout the criminal defense investigation, the private investigator will scour routine police reports, copies of evidence, photographs, phone messages and witness statements related to the case, with the ultimate goal being to determine whether or not there are any inconsistencies from one witness to the next .

What happens if a private investigator finds out there are other witnesses who did not come forward?

If the private investigator unearths any inconsistencies or ulterior motives, they may be able to be used as a part of the client's defense. By the same merit, if the private investigator finds out that there are other witnesses who had not come forward, he or she can then look into these developments further.

What is a private investigator?

Private investigators are full trained to take the time to understand the charges and laws associated with a specific crime when an attorney uses a private investigator in a criminal defense investigation. Once the private investigator develops a concrete understanding of the case in question, he or she will go over all of the materials that the defense team has received from the prosecutor.

Why is obtaining and preserving evidence important?

Obtaining and preserving evidence is essential to any criminal defense case. The investigator must understand related laws, the proper way to gather evidence and maintain the chain of custody for possible court proceeding. Many good criminal cases have been lost because of tainted evidence.

Is it easy to work on multiple cases?

Regardless of an attorney's accumulated skill, experience, or efficiency, it's always an easy task to stay on top of all the work that comes through your door. When an attorney is working on multiple cases, it's often more difficult to find the time to fish for case-making facts as thoroughly as one would hope.

Do attorneys have expertise?

While attorneys are experts in legal practice, there are many times when expertise in other industries becomes quite useful. This is where professional investigators shine. Attorneys should leverage expertise, an investigative firm’s collected experience, to their benefit.

Why do we need investigators?

Whether it is an adversarial matter or an internal investigation, investigators may be used to efficiently recover electronic files – including those that a subject believes he or she has successfully deleted. Investigators are frequently used to identify and analyze a subject’s emails, documents, or other files.

How do investigators help you?

Investigators can help you to know who is actually sitting on the other side of the table during litigation or a potential business deal. You can gain immeasurable negotiation power by identifying who is actually behind a faceless corporation or tying together undisclosed connections.

What is an investigator?

Investigators are skilled at locating assets such as real estate, valuable property (art work, antiques, collectibles, etc.), and vehicles (motor vehicles, aircraft, vessels, etc.). An investigator can also help attorneys to identify the location both domestic and offshore bank accounts (though the details of these assets may not necessarily be ...

What is an investigator's report?

During preparation for a deposition or courtroom testimony, an investigator’s report detailing your witnesses’ weaknesses, background, and behavioral tendencies may be one of your most valuable tools. This can also be useful in identifying information against your client, so you can be prepared for what may come up during the course of the litigation.