How Private Investigators Help in a Variety of Court Cases

Attorneys sometimes enlist the assistance of private investigation firms to support a case, whether the case is criminal or civil. The attorney might be defending a client charged with homicide or representing a plaintiff in a personal injury or child custody civil case, for example. Private investigators can testify in court and the evidence they gather can be used, as long as the way they obtained the evidence is not prohibited by law.

Important Considerations

A reputable private investigator will not commit illegal activity like breaking into someone's home to find evidence. This individual also cannot tap phones or hide recording devices inside people's homes. Listening in on conversations taking place in public, as in a restaurant or park, is acceptable. An attorney preparing for a civil trial or criminal defense may call John Cutter for assistance in gathering evidence.

Criminal Cases

When private investigators work on criminal defense cases, they are competing with police detectives in a sense. Those detectives have obtained enough evidence for the prosecution to charge the defendant with a crime. The private detective now must obtain evidence that would cause reasonable doubt in the jury's minds. This might be done by finding evidence that could implicate a different person in the crime or to support the defendant's stance of innocence. It could also make the police department's evidence look questionable.

Common Civil Cases

Common civil cases include personal injury lawsuits in which the injured person is the plaintiff, and divorce cases in which two individuals cannot come to an agreement on important aspects like distribution of assets and shared child custody. A private investigation firm may represent either side of the issues; in fact, both sides may hire private detectives.

Making a Significant Difference

These individuals help uncover the truth in many instances and also help juries and judges make decisions in complex matters. They can make a significant difference for someone who has been charged with a serious crime, and for a parent who is afraid of losing shared child custody or frequent visitation because the ex-spouse is moving out of state.

People might wonder what an investigator could possibly find that could be important in a custody case. Some examples could include evidence of heavy drinking or illicit drug use while the children are at this parent's home. The parent may sometimes go out overnight, leaving the kids with a babysitter. Information on one particular private investigation organization can be viewed at the website johncutterinvestigations.com/.