From decisions involving investments and partnerships to those made by lawyers or their clients during litigation, private investigators are the one-stop resource available to anyone.

How does an asset investigation aid the legal process?

Pre-litigation

Prior to investing any amount of time and money into the legal process, it’s best to have a clear understanding of the debtor’s financial situation and his or her ability to pay on those obligations. The information obtained during an asset investigations will tell you this. It will also help you answer whether or not pursuing a judgment is worth it.

During Litigation

During the course of litigation, debtors will often declare that they have no assets. An investigation can confirm or deny this claim as well as determine if the assets have been transferred within the time period that the state allows a creditor to pursue those assets.

Lending Money

Hindsight is usually twenty-twenty; however, foresight is recommended when it comes to investing or lending money. Asset investigations can help determine an individual’s ability to repay a loan. It also may help support your case if the individual defaults on the loan or there is misuse of funds.

Judgment Recovery 

Obtaining a judgment is only the first step in what could be a long process. Identifying assets to attach your judgment to or accounts where garnishment is an option, is key in recovering money owed to you. Conducting an asset investigation plays an integral role in this process — as assets are not always evident.

“Google it!”

A simple Google search can be the best starting point when there’s a question that needs an answer. Google can lead to the black and white facts or find references.

There are some things, however, that Google just isn’t good for. Finding a person or information about a person is a great example. When searching for information about a specific individual, it’s better to leave that searching to a private investigator.

Sure, the Internet is full of websites that offer $20 background checks or contact information for a person you’re looking for for $10. At first glance, many of these sights even say the service is free. Go ahead, start to fill out the online form, but once you hit send, a screen will pop up asking for your credit card information. You see, it’s only free if you sign up for the monthly service. Of course, there are a few sites that advertise a fee-per-search price.

Read the fine print. Many of these search services basically return a glorified Google search, often turning up a “no records found” report. There is no single database that magically holds every detail of information about an individual. It takes footwork, knowing where to look and access to major databases that are only available to select agencies and people.

Save yourself the trouble and risk of hiring a seven-time convicted felon who showed a clean slate when his or her name was run through an online search service.

Private investigators know:

Identifiers

Providing personal information is the building block of any investigation. Knowing a person’s name is very important. (Ok, so that was a no brainer.) Any other information such as the last four digits of a Social Security number, date of birth, address and the like will help narrow down a search, helping hone in on the correct individual. (You try Google searching a John Smith born on April 12, 1957 who lives in New York. I bet you found more than one match.) Once an investigator has the basic identifiers, the information is double and triple checked before it’s made a part of the research.

Research

Research leads an investigator in many different directions. Communication with a client is key during the research phase of a case. Knowing what the client needs helps an investigator outline their approach and dictates what will be searched.
Information an investigator may gain from research:
• Property: information about property deeds, equity of the property and if the property is owned outright.
• Records: civil/criminal records and confirm valid driver’s licenses or professional information such as place of employment, level of education, and professional licenses or affiliations. Professional information can lead to information about the position of the subject.
• Social networks: What Facebook or Twitter says about an individual.

Human Intelligence

The investigator will take the gathered information and verify the collected data. Discreet and non-discreet methods can be used to verify a phone numbers and addresses. Investigators have their preferred resources, subscription databases and gadgets that aid in the location of particular individuals.

Strategy

After the necessary information is found and verified, the investigator will generate a report for the client that is readable and easy to understand. After receiving the report, clients ask the investigator questions and list concerns about the information contained in the report. This usually leads to further investigations that could involve more research, surveillance, undercover work or for documents like subpoenas to be served. An investigator offers more than just a report. They offer a second set of eyes and ideas to a client’s case.

Try doing all that and more with just Google. Oh, and those web-based search services, I bet they don’t discuss the report with you. Can you even get someone on line if needed?

Just call a private investigator. — We’ve got your back!

For a private investigator, the most important of these tools are the ones used during surveillance. A contact lens video camera may be a little out of reach now, but there are a slew of devices, modern and traditional, that help investigators get the information their clients need.

Traditional
Just like a big white dress at a church wedding, investigators have equipment that is traditionally used when going into the field for a surveillance assignment. These are the staples and are often the first line of gadgets used.

• Cameras (still and video)
• Walkies for communication (Investigators typically work in pairs.)
• Binoculars
• Cell phone
• Bug sweeping kit (threw this one in for good measure)

The old school tools
Technology is changing within the hour so the things that were once the ultimate in high tech surveillance are now lost to the closet.
• Pager cameras
• Old cell phone camera
• Walkies

Remember when cell phones were analog and weighed five pounds? We still have one from our old surveillance arsenal. It sits in a case with pagers that are actually video cameras. I’m sure you’re wondering why we wouldn’t throw something like this out.

Well, what if you have to do surveillance for an FMLA abuse case, and the suspect is working near a hospital? In comes the inconspicuous use of a pager camera that caught the suspect working a second job while calling in to her main job for family medical leave.

The modern gadgetry
As technology expands and grows, the ability to put audio and visual cameras in smaller objects becomes easier. The price for these surveillance items also begins to decrease. This is of course great news for those in the business of spying, er, investigating through surveillance.

•Small, interchangeable camera (Make it look like a screw in the wall or a button on your shirt.)
• MP3 player (actually a receiver)
• Pen
• Key fob

It’s hard to believe these items have small high definition cameras in them and have the ability to record audio, but they do.

50/50
Don’t get too distracted by the surveillance gear. It still takes a skilled and trained investigator to get the right information. It can be dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing. If the law isn’t followed, surveillance might just have stuck behind bars. Technology and gadgets are only 50 percent of the process. The other 50 percent is in the search and reporting skills of the investigator.

                                          What’s in your surveillance kit?

The sun is bright. The air is warm. The birds are chirping. The grass is growing.

Who wants to be cooped up in an office building or warehouse all day? Certainly not me.

It’s all I can do not to fake a cough in order to take the rest of the day off and get a little much needed yard work done. Instead, I sit at my desk and earn the income needed to maintain my life. Unfortunately, not everyone sees the importance of job responsibility and obligation.

The first warm days of spring often come with a slew of absences from most companies. There’s nothing wrong with taking a personal day in order to enjoy some fishing or hiking. What is wrong — using FMLA or a workers’ compensation as a truancy excuse.

Making a false claim to either of these programs as a way to enjoy extra days off throughout the summer is also a no go, but the fact of the matter is that people abuse the system all the time. That abuse hurts everyone and not just a company’s bottom line. Program premiums go up (about 25 percent) and the availability down. The cost of products also increases while employee morale is left spiraling downward.

This is when private investigators often step in. We work with corporations, insurance companies and attorneys and help expose abuse and recover losses.

It all starts with basic surveillance.

But before I delve into the how, let’s talk about the what. Surveillance is a watch kept over a person or group. It’s documented, unbiased observations about what a subject is doing or not doing. Those observations can be made in many different ways.

Surveillance is not an invasion of privacy when done within the confines of the law and in public view. It is not stalking either. An individual does not have any privacy rights when acts are performed in the public realm.

So how does surveillance work?

Before an investigator even jumps in a vehicle with a camera and an arsenal of caffeine, he or she does a little homework. It’s important to know the basics which can include something as simple as a description of an individual.

A good investigator will have a detailed background of an individual that includes an address, what vehicles are driven, place of employment, social media accounts and whether or not the the person has a criminal record. The information is found using discreet methods and multiple search bases. The preliminary information collected is used to create a strategy for the field. This strategy is integral to getting the proper information and footage.

Once their homework is completed, investigators take to the field. Field surveillance takes skill and a lot of patience. Sometimes it’s as easy as following a subject and catching them on video or still camera doing the things they claim they cannot do. While other cases require a little more persistence or use of high tech gadgetry. Of course, the more days you watch an individual, the higher the batting average and odds of hitting a home run with the capture of inarguable evidence.

When an investigator comes back to a client, their reports include much more than some pictures and video. As a matter of fact, an investigator’s written reports and interviews often stand up better in court as evidence than a video or photograph. Those reports either save a company hundreds of thousand of dollars in false claims.

It’s important to note, however; that investigators aren’t always out to find an individual engaged in wrong doing. Although the investigator is checking to see if a subject is truly injured or out on family leave and not working a second job or exaggerating the legitimacy of their claim, sometimes the evidence and reports are used to validate a claim.

Any investigator will tell you, “video doesn’t lie.”

Phenix places a majority of its focus on professional investigations — not to say that that is all we do.  Our investigators work a broad range of cases for a number of different clients.

Still, people often wonder why anyone in the professional realm would need to hire a private investigator. Well, private investigators are uber confidential, super discreet and have the specialized training and expertise to get information that many loss prevention and law enforcement officials often cannot.

Although Phenix does have a variety of clients, we do have a few different types that we help a majority of the time. So who are they?

Phenix works cases for Fortune 500 companies, nationally known law firms, insurance companies, financial institutions and realtors. We even work with small, hometown businesses. Each client has specific needs to their industry but some services are universal. Some clients require a service that Phenix must create a case specific strategy for.

So what are the basic services as they relate to client groups? Click below to find out.

• 3 reasons why financial institutions hire private investigators

• 3 reasons why realtors and real estate agencies hire private investigators

• 5 reasons why businesses and corporations large and small hire private investigators

• 5 reasons why insurance companies hire private investigators

• 5 reasons why law firms and attorneys hire private investigators