Tag Archive for: investigative techniques
Why Does My Investigation Cost $2,400? A Breakdown of a Typical Bill
After years in business, one of my biggest marketing challenges is still explaining to potential clients why an investigator can’t just use a few mysterious databases and “deep Googling,” as one hopeful person described it, and produce…
The Ethics of Handling Stolen Data from the Dark Web
We were asked recently about the ethics and legality of Dark Web searches, increasingly part of many investigations. I realized we had never posted on this issue and it’s about time.
Since a lot of what we use from the Dark Web is stolen…
Public Record Sources for Free – What Any Investigator Can (but May Not) Tell You
Investigators get information in exchange for money, so why in the world would an investigator want to tell people how to get that information for free?
As I wrote last week on our companion blog, The Divorce Asset Hunter in an article called…
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…
The Federal Judge Scandal – a Glimpse of What AI Can Do
I was puzzled this week at the reaction to a bomb of a story by the Wall Street Journal. The paper’s rightfully cautious lawyers allowed it to go to press and declare that 131 federal judges had broken the law by hearing cases in which they…
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…
Getting Closer to the Truth
What conveys the truth more effectively?
A snapshot of a person’s values and accomplishments in the form of a quotation? Or a long essay about that person that will contain the short clip but surround it with other facts that could contradict…
Asset Searches and Company Names: Tips on Tracking and Naming Companies
Some people just like privacy, but others form companies with a view to concealing any link between that company and themselves. If you are hiding assets from creditors, that’s a plus (for you, not the creditors).
Picking a company name can…
When Investigations are Like Playing Billiards
For anyone who has ever tried to play pool, it quickly becomes obvious that the best way to get the ball in the pocket isn’t always the most direct.
If there’s another ball in the way or the angle doesn’t work, redirecting the ball off…
Taking Investigation Seriously
Most of us in the business can remember clients who call us to say something like, “We’ve done some pretty serious Googling, so you probably won’t find anything.” We had a prospective client some years ago who said exactly those words,…
