Fighting for custody of your children is the most important battle you’ll ever wage. Losing the right to see your kids and spend time with them as you see fit isn’t something anyone should face alone. Custody battles can be long, intimidating, and costly. You need every resource at your disposal to make sure you have the upper hand at every stop. Here are five ways private investigators can make sure you’re not alone in the fight of your life.
1. Did you really know your ex?
How well do you know your ex? When you got married you certainly believed you knew her inside and out, but you also didn’t believe you’d end up divorced. Splitting up will change how you view one another. You’ll start seeing flaws you never noticed before and having questions you thought you knew the answer too. You thought you knew her before you got married, but did you?
When did you first meet your ex? Have you known her since grade school or did you meet later in life? Are you certain this was her first marriage? Does she have a criminal history she kept hidden from you? Where has she worked and why did she change jobs? Private investigators can answer all of these questions and more by running extensive background checks and personally verifying the information for you.
2. Who’s coming and going?
When you and your ex shared a home, you consulted each other before inviting people over. Together you decided who you did and didn’t want inside your house. Now that you’re apart, those determinations will be made separately, which might be cause for concern.
It’s one thing for your ex to bring people over when the kids aren’t there, but what about when they are? Who’s coming and going from the house and what are they doing? Maybe the increase in visitors is nothing. Maybe someone selling drugs from the house.
In an ideal world you’d ask your ex what’s going on and get a straight answer, but that’s likely not the case. Divorce can create tension and difficulty in communication. One way to avoid a big fight that won’t get you the answers you want is to hire a private investigator. An investigator can surveil the home and determine who is stopping by and why. P.I.s will get you vital information while avoiding the drama of asking your ex.
3. Are my kids safe and clean?
Children need a comfortable and clean environment. It’s vital to their development that they have a space they can relax and feel safe in. Who took care of the house when you and your ex were still together? Have your kids made comments about their mom not keeping the house tidy like she should?
It should be easy to find out about the condition of your ex’s place, but maybe she won’t let you in out of embarrassment or scorn. If she’s having a rough time dealing with the divorce it’s possible she’s depressed and not taking care of things like your children deserve. Private investigators can determine the condition of her home and help you ensure your kids are safe and comfortable.
4. Where is your ex taking you children and are they safe?
Worried about where your ex takes your children during her visitation time? At least when she stays home you know they’re somewhere safe and controlled. They’re in a familiar place and near a phone in case of an emergency. What happens when she packs the kids into the car and goes somewhere else though?
Depending on the age of your children they might need booster seats when they ride in the car. Are they to small to safely ride in the front seat? Is your ex properly placing them in safety restraints? Is she making sure they put their seat belts on every time they travel? Where is she taking your kids?
People deal with stress differently. Some people take up knitting or learn to play a musical instrument. Others find themselves seeking the comfort of a bottle or narcotic. Are you sure your children aren’t being driven around to liquor stores and bad neighborhood’s where your ex picks up her supplies?
Private investigators can answer all of these question with mobile surveillance. Investigators can track your ex to make sure your children aren’t being placed in dangerous positions. Not only can P.I.s let you know where your children are being taken and how, but they can document instances of child endangerment for evidence in court.
5. Who are these people?
Splitting up with your ex means going in different directions and starting new lives. Building a new life requires developing new social circles. When you were married you knew you were coming home to each other and your kids every evening. Now that you’re apart, other people will begin filling that void.
Can you trust your ex to keep you informed about the strangers she’s bringing around your children? Maybe she genuinely trusts these people, but how good has her judgement been in the past? She might be a little too trusting for your comfort.
Private investigators can give you peace of mind by figuring out who she’s introducing to your children. Running background checks and surveillance will give you a clear picture of who’s interacting with your children and whether you should be concerned or not. Be certain that your kids are safe and know for sure if they’re not
For Private Investigation Inquiry contact Thomas Lauth, Lauth Investigations 317-951-1100
David Schroeder, Blog Writer, Lauth Investigations International
Hiring a private investigator has never been easier. Type “hire a private investigator” into Google and your screen will be filled with results. Some of the results are for independent locally owned businesses like Lauth Investigations International. Others are franchises or contracting agencies that rely on minimal information to connect you with an investigator quickly.
The most obvious reason to hire a locally based private investigator instead of a franchise is that local P.I.s are guaranteed to know the area better. Living and breathing in the area they work gives local investigators a huge advantage over contractors. Local investigators are in the city where you need them 24/7.
Has your child runaway? Local P.I.s will know where kids hang around and be able to check the spots with an understanding of which ones are more likely to yield results. Local firms won’t waste time searching closed down arcades or movie theaters, because they’ll already know it’s been shut down.
On the other hand contractors might not live within 50 miles of the city you need searched. Franchises contract investigators with a minimal application process and could assign someone to your case out of convenience rather than expertise. Get help from someone who walks the streets every night, not a tourist.
Investigators rely heavily on networks of sources cultivated from years of working the same areas. You don’t meet locals and find out out where people go in a town without getting out and talking to the natives. Establishing trust with sources requires repeated face-to-face interactions that can’t be fast forwarded through.
Contracted investigators may know a guy or two, but local investigators are swimming amongst their neighbors when they work a case in their backyard. It’s easier for a local P.I. to get a favor done, because the person doing the favor knows the P.I. will still be there tomorrow if they need something. Local P.I.s have an investment in their neighborhoods that the community understands and contractors can’t replicate.
Investment in the community is a major difference between local firms and franchises. Local private investigation firms build their businesses from the ground up in the cities they serve. They vet all of their employees thoroughly and only work with people they know they can trust. Local firms don’t hire contractors after filling out a short application. They hire known commodities and promote from within.
Promoting from within means local firms invest in their employees with training to expand their skill set. Franchises maximize their profits by taking on a high volume of cases and spreading them around to the cheapest contractors they can find. Sometimes those contractors will perform quality work, but can you risk your case being passed off to the lowest bidder?
Local firms make their money by performing quality work for clients. When you check the reviews for a local firm, you’re seeing the results of the investigators you’ll be working with. Past cases offer local P.I.s references and testimonies from those they’ve served directly. Franchises are nothing more than middle men who pass the buck to someone else. Which do you want to rest your hope and faith in?
For Private Investigation Inquiry contact Thomas Lauth, Lauth Investigations 317-951-1100
David Schroeder, Blog Writer, Lauth Investigations International
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
Private investigators can be an attorney’s best friend. Juggling multiple cases for different clients is time consuming and can make giving adequate attention to every client’s needs challenging. Here are everyday scenarios when private investigators can make an attorney’s job easier.
Serving Subpoenas
Cases can be won and lost based on which side has more witnesses show up to court. Subpoenas are a great way to compel people to be present for court, but what good is a subpoena if you can’t find the person to serve it to?
Don’t let a search for witnesses become a distraction from your work and a headache for your client. Tracking people down is a private investigator’s bread and butter. Not only can P.I.s locate known witnesses, they can also canvas an area and do interviews to find more witnesses to strengthen your case.
Research and expertise
Attorneys need to do ample research to be as prepared as possible every time they walk into a court room. They must know and understand as much about every case as possible. It’s not always enough to know the facts of a case and you may need to bring in a third party to act as an expert witness. Investigators can help you find the right experts quickly so you don’t waste your client’s time and money on the wrong people.
Private investigators spend a lot of time doing research. They can efficiently scour databases and identify applicable information to aid your client’s case. Outsourcing research to P.I.s can reduce the costs incurred by your clients too. Attorney fees can stack up quickly and clients will appreciate saving money where they can.
Preparing for Cross-Examination
Testimony is one of the most powerful tools in any lawyer’s tool box. Putting someone on the stand to give their personal account is powerful and can sway judges and jurors in a heartbeat. Knowing what to expect from the other sides witnesses, as well your own, can give you the edge during any hearing. Attorneys should never put someone on the stand without carefully considering the strengths and weaknesses of the individual and their testimony.
Private investigators can help evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your clients and identify potential areas of their testimony that the other side will try to exploit. Private investigators are experienced in court room scenarios and can even assist in mock examinations to better prepare your clients.
Help Enforce Judgments
Winning a case is every attorney’s goal, but getting a judgement in your favor is only half the battle. What can you do if the losing side decides not to obey the judge’s order? What if they attempt to misrepresent their assets and net worth?
Hiring a private investigator to locate and identify assets before a judgement is passed down can help you know what you can get for your client. Knowing what the opposing side has ahead of time will prevent them from hiding assets and denying your client their just dues. It will also make it easier for the judge to understand what you’re seeking and why.
For Private Investigation Inquiry contact Thomas Lauth, Lauth Investigations 317-951-1100
David Schroeder, Blog Writer, Lauth Investigations International
Divorce is difficult. Even more so when children are involved. Figuring out custodial agreements is challenging and presents opportunities for disagreement that can span years. It’s important that parents understand all of the resources available to them and how private investigators can be valuable assets in the fight to protect their children and secure custody.
Is your child coming home with signs of abuse?
If you suspect your child is being abused, you need to begin documenting all of the evidence immediately. Bruises or marks, no matter how small or faint, must be photographed as soon as they are noticed. Photographic evidence is some of the strongest evidence you can produce.
It can be difficult to prove child abuse has taken place. Depending on the age of the child they may not be able to articulate exactly what happened. If the abuse was traumatic enough it could cause confusion when the child tries to explain what occured. The importance of adequately documenting potential abuse cannot be overstated.
Private investigators have the equipment and insight to properly record suspected instances of abuse. Dealing with the court system is a private investigator’s forte and they understand what the courts need to see and how it must be presented to prompt the courts to take action. When it comes to your child’s safety, you cannot afford to delay seeking help.
I’m concerned my ex is using drugs around our children.
Across America a heroin epidemic is breaking out. Drug abuse is impacting people of all social and economic backgrounds. Recently a picture circulated news and social media of two adults passed out from a heroin overdose in their SUV while a four-year-old boy sat helplessly in the back seat.
The female in the passenger seat is the boy’s grandmother. She lost consciousness after shooting-up while her boyfriend drove. Upon being stopped by police for driving erratically, the boyfriend passed out too. The grandmother had only had custody of the boy for 5 weeks when this occurred.
No one knew the grandmother’s heroin abuse was so bad or she never would’ve been granted custody in the first place. But this raises the question of how anyone could have known her addiction was this in strong? What red flags were missed that could’ve kept this boy out of danger? Was this the first time the couple used drugs with the child present?
Private investigators are trained to pay attention to and take note of people’s abnormal behavior. Surveillance by a P.I. may have led to the discovery of the grandmother’s drug abuse before the child was put in this potentially fatal scenario.Thankfully the police were able to intervene and get the boy to safety.
My ex isn’t spending their visitation time with our kids. What can I do?
When the courts determine visitation time they do so expecting the parents to spend that time with their child. This isn’t always the case though. Sometimes the parent will take the child for visitation time, but drop them off with a family member or baby sitter.
One parent passing their child off to someone else during visitation time not only deprives the child of time quality time, but it prevents the other parent from seeing their child as well. Depending on your state and custodial agreement, it’s possible it’s a violation of the law as well.
The Right of First Refusal stipulates that when one parent plans to have a third party babysit their child during visitation time, they must first give the other parent a chance to say they will or won’t watch the child instead. Private Investigators can provide records and documentation that demonstrates when visitation isn’t being properly utilized to make sure the parents who want time with their child are getting it.
I’m worried about the new people my ex is bringing around our kids.
One of the scarier parts of a divorce is knowing sooner or later your child is going to be introduced to new people you won’t get the chance to know beforehand. No one wants their child around strangers, but it’s an inevitable reality of separate parenting. It’s possible the new people in your ex’s life are wonderful, but why take any chances?
Private investigators can help alleviate these concerns. Investigators routinely perform background checks that can help you to better know who’s around your child. Concerned about where your children are being taken when they’re not with you? Surveillance can keep you informed about your children’s condition and whereabouts when you can’t be there.
For Private Investigation Inquiry contact Thomas Lauth, Lauth Investigations 317-951-1100
David Schroeder, Blog Writer, Lauth Investigations International
