Tag Archive for: background investigation
What Makes a Good Investigator?
As with a good meal, a few simple ingredients, combined in the right way.
Good cooking consists of simple ingredients that nevertheless may take time to add to your meal. Garlic powder is easier to deploy than freshly peeled, mashed and diced…
The Advantage of Small Talk in Big Cases
Listen to me explain why putting people at ease is the best way to elicit information from them. I don't have a badge or a subpoena, so the key is to be nice to them and be interested in what they do, think, and feel. Get the podcast chat on…
Five Questions to Ask an Investigator Before Hiring
Where do you start in deciding which investigator to hire for a sensitive job?
It should be a business of trust, just as it is when choosing someone to come up with an estate plan, to sue a former business partner, or to handle a complex…
The Problem with Just Connecting the Dots: They’re in Motion
It’s one of the tried and true ways investigators have to explain their work. “Connecting the dots.”
What we usually mean is that in a sea of data, we can find the relevant material and put it in the right context by showing how it relates…
Can Your Investigator Interview Your Opponent’s Ex-Employees? A Good Test for Your Investigator Before You Hire
Any litigator tasking interviews of potential witnesses needs to know about the no-contact rule (ABA Model Rule 4.2)[1], which forbids talking to represented people on the other side of a case. This also goes for most current employees of the…
Why Your Investigator Should Have a Sense of Humor (Seriously)
In a partially hilarious, partially disturbing article this week in The Wall Street Journal, “Facebook Has No Sense of Humor,” the Editor in Chief of the satirical website The Babylon Bee related that two patently ridiculous “news” stories…
The Small Business Landlord-Tenant Wars Have Begun
The big guys have been going bankrupt, but the real carnage is yet to come:. Among America’s small businesses. Potential creditors need to get organized for the fight which appears to have been kicked off in New York this month with a fascinating…
The Bumbling Spies of Black Cube: Lawyers Beware
If you haven’t seen the amusing and disturbing piece in the Wall Street Journal this week about Black Cube, the band of former Mossad (Israeli secret service) agents, it’s worth a look.
The article explains that Black Cube’s people run…
AI and Legal Investigation: Seek the Good, Avoid the “Perfect”
Artificial intelligence doesn’t equal artificial perfection. I have argued for a while now both on this blog and in a forthcoming law review article here that lawyers (and the investigators who work for them) have little to fear and much to…
EB-5 Visa Due Diligence: How to Spot the Warning Signs of Fraud
Another EB-5 visa fraud, more burned investors. For people outside the United States trying to pick a reputable investment that will get them permanent residency in the U.S., sorting through hundreds of projects is often the hardest part of…
