The Role of a Good Private Investigator

April 4, 2009

In my opinion, the role of a good private investigator is to give the plaintiff/defense additional information with which to support their issue. No matter if the private investigator is on staff at the attorneys' office or subcontracted, he/she has a pivotal role in the matter assigned.

It's easy to approach a friend of the plaintiff or defense and take a positive statement from them; the difficult part is to do the same from someone who doesn't want to get involved or is irritated/frustrated with the judicial system in general.

I make personal calls on those types of witnesses without notifying them first. I recall one occasion during a personal injury case where the father of the defendant greeted me. He was on the inside of a metal security door that I couldn't see into. My mission was to determine how often his son drove a certain vehicle and, if possible, the amount of insurance carried on that vehicle.

I told the father why I was there and he said he had nothing to say. In this case, a private investigator has between five and ten seconds to sell him or herself.

I immediately turned my attention to the vehicle, in question, which was parked in the driveway. I started to be inquisitive about it. He opened the door and came out as I began to walk toward the vehicle. The gentleman was now "outside" of his cloak of darkness and into the light where we could physically see each other. Naturally, he was taller. They always are.

I discussed my interest in vehicles but told him I honestly only know how to change oil in my old Volvo. (Her Majesty got the new Volvo, the house, and the......) At this point, he entered my comfort zone. During my verbal visual tour of his vehicle, I began to sprinkle in questions, the same as I might if I were cooking a gourmet meal. During the time that I was going to add "a dash of that," he told me that he didn't want to sign anything. "Hey," I said, "That's okay with me." So by then the discussion was becoming centered on things relating to cars and to the vehicle in his driveway, in particular. We talked about the horsepower of the engine and the type of shocks on it. "Are shocks and struts the same, " I wondered out loud. He was happy to set me straight on the matter. And then, finally we got around to talking about the type of insurance you should have on a vehicle such as this and how often his son was allowed to drive it. Mission Accomplished. Case Closed.