4 Types of People who can Use a Private Investigator

Private investigators do a variety of work for a wide array of clients. P.I.s are best known for their work finding missing people, but that’s a very small slice of what they do. Investigators routinely help businesses with internal investigations and support human resources departments during the hiring process. It’s common for attorneys to call private investigators to assist in research and help identifying witnesses and assets to strengthen their cases.

1. Everyday Citizens

Shelia Wysocki’s roommate was raped and murdered in 1984. Two decades later the case was unsolved and had gone cold. Wysocki hadn’t given up on though and spent four years making more than 700 phone calls and was able to provide detectives with enough evidence that they reopened the case. In 2010, after all of Wysocki’s work, a jury convicted her roommate’s killer in under an hour. A dedicated investigator can shine new light on old cases and help reinvigorate an investigation.

Have you had a family member go missing? Whether it was a runaway, kidnapping, or a family member moving, private investigators can help. P.I.s have a long history of finding missing people and it’s one of the skills they’re most known for. Don’t sit around wondering what happened to them, hire a P.I. to find out and give yourself peace of mind.

If your car or home is broken into and valuable items are stolen, the odds that police will recover your belongings are low. Resource constraints mean the police are likely to push your case to the bottom of the pile. Private investigators are available even when the police aren’t and can help prevent family heirlooms from being lost forever.

2. Attorneys

Every attorney should have a private investigator’s business card in their pocket. Private investigators are keen researchers and can help make sure every lawyer has all of the relevant information for every one of their cases. Contracting a third party to handle research can also lower costs for clients since the hours won’t be billed to the attorney, increasing the value client’s receive.

Private investigators can strengthen cases by identifying more witnesses and evaluating the witnesses you already have. Are you having trouble contacting someone you need to interview or depose? Private investigators can help you make the contacts you need and ensure they’re up for the tasks ahead.

3. Business Owners

Businesses and corporations stand to gain a ton by employing the skills of a private investigator. Save time and money by having a P.I. handle background checks and vetting of potential new hires. Bring the right people onto your team the first time and dedicate resources to other ventures.

Need to do an internal investigation, but worried about intraoffice relationships making it difficult? Do you suspect there may be drug use or theft happening on your property? P.I.s can conduct discreet internal investigations that will produce objective results quickly.

4. Insurance Agents

Every insurance agency should have a strong working relationship with private investigators and the reasons why will strike most people as obvious. When someone files a claim for injuries or disability, how can you be sure it’s not fraudulent? Estimates say insurance payouts are between $80 and $120 billion a year. 10% or $8 to $12 billion of those claims are projected to be fraudulent.

Pretending to be hurt during an interview is easy, but how many people can stick to their act 24 hours a day, seven days a week? Take the case of a young man who, after losing the tip of his finger, claimed he couldn’t lift his right hand and that touching it caused excruciating pain. A private investigation firm was able to disprove these claims and save millions of dollars by scouring the man’s social media and finding pictures of him playing instruments and going down water slides. Protect yourself from fraud by hiring a private investigator.

For Private Investigation Inquiry contact Thomas Lauth, Lauth Investigations 317-951-1100

David Schroeder, Blog Writer, Lauth Investigations International