Thankful for....

Harris Investigations, LLC has expanded our staff and the services we provide. We are thankful for all our clients that have stood by us in the past 5 years and those that voted US the BEST INVESTIGATION AGENCY IN PA FOR 2010.. (the members and readers of the Legal Intelligencer). We have added to our staff retired Abington Township Police Officer Leroy Risell. He brings with him the experience as an officer. We are going to expand to armed security and protection in 2011. There is also talk of us going to repo work as well, based on client demand.

If there is a service we do not provide, let us know. We will be happy to talk about adding the service.

follow us on Facebook at Harris Investigations, LLC as well as on blogspot. Check our website as well. www.harrisinvestigations.net

what can a private investigator do for you ??

What a Private Investigator can do for you...
WHAT CAN AN INVESTIGATOR DO FOR AN ATTORNEY?
A PRESENTATION BY HARRIS INVESTIGATIONS, LLC
Bonded, Licensed and Insured in Pa, De, and NJ
　
I. HIRING AN INVESTIGATOR
II. TRIAL PREPARATION
III. WITNESSES
IV. EVIDENCE
V. RECORDS
VI. SURVEILLANCE / VIDEO / PHOTOGRAPHY
VII. POST TRIAL
　
I. HIRING AN INVESTIGATOR
Request yearly copies of Private Detective License, Bond and Liability Insurance
Verify insurance with their insurance company or request your company be added to their policy
County requirement for Detective License: minimal bond (usually $10,000) – does not cover you should the investigation go wrong or the investigator’s information be incorrect
II. TRIAL PREPARATION
Why should an attorney use an investigator?
Private Investigator vs. Attorney
· More cost effective (charge less)
· Better results
· Do not divulge what side they are working for
· Trained to find existing laws as opposed to people and facts
· Limited time to execute full investigations
· Must divulge which side they are working for
　
Prepare trial exhibits including maps, enlarged photos, diagrams, overlays, jury instructions, etc.
Prepare case chronology
Prepare reports and personal testimony as requested
Prepare alphabetical witness summary with name, address, telephone numbers, and short statement of relationship to the case
Assist with large case management
Pick up and review records pursuant to subpoena duces tecum, court order or signed release

The most ask question.. are you really like what we see on tv? WELL NO we are not

Do you REALLY know what a private Investigator does?

Is your spouse cheating? If you think they are they probably are!

Premployment background checks? Do you check them out before you higher them or just after they steal from you?

Do you need documents served? We do subpeonas, summons, complaints anything all, within the guidelines.

Scene or vehicle photos?

Surveillance?

Household checks (yes ask me what they are!!)

DMV searches

Product Liablity Searches

Statements?

Skip Traces?

We are licensed in PA, DE and NJ ..
We have staffed offices in all those states as well!

call toll free 888-484-9827,

email harrisinvestigations@verizon.net

Our websites: harrisinvetigations.net, deptfordnjpi.com, montcopapi.com, lansdalepapi.com, wilmingtondepi.com, or delawarepi.net

Monday Morning....

Its Monday Morning.. most of the calls have been.. I met someone on line.. should I check them out.. HECK YEA!! Im not saying that becuase i want your business either. I just dont want someone to be investigating your rape, murder, loss of thousands of dollars or something else.

I am all for people being happy, but in this day in age, alot of work we do is background checks on your potentinal mate. Yes some info we can not give you, so if you have a family lawyer, you might get a little more informaiton.

But please be wary of that hot and perfect woman or hot and amazing guy..

I own a business or am in HR what do I need an investigator for?

Do you ever higher a new employee ? After reading all the applications, interviewing and getting ready to higher.. do you do a background check? Why? Well what about intellectual property theft? What

What is Intellectual Property Theft

Employee theft does is not limited stealing merchandise from the store shelves or cash from the register. Some of the most common thefts today involve theft of company intellectual property, such as unfilled patent applications, potential trademarks, new product information, sales and price statics, client lists and the like.



What Can a Potential Employer Find on a Pre-Employment Background Check?

If you are going to change careers you might want to see what your prospective employer could find out about you. Have them help you with your drivers record and criminal and civil background searches and pull your credit report yourself.


Harris Investigations, LLC

Please note not all investigations by private investigators involve serious incidents such as homicide and bombings. However, serious incidents do arise in other contexts such as cases involving the searches for missing persons, division of assets, and child custody. Private Investigators - Let Them Find a Missing Person For You. There are a lot of things we can do.



Pre employment checks most often used.

Criminal background check: The investigator will conduct a criminal background check to see what crimes the individual has been charged with or convicted of. It many cases this will not eliminate you from the job, depending on the crime.

Credit check: A credit check is a valuable personal security investigation tool because it reveals a person's propensity for taking responsibility for their obligations. It reveals if someone is in financial trouble, it could lead them to do things they normally wouldn't do.

Verification: An investigator, will verify the employment and educational information provided by the employee, to eliminate the possibility of hiring someone who has committed resume fraud by lying about their qualifications for the job.

Rainy days....

You would think on a rainy day.. my office would all be inside... well.. guess what.. Leroy is walking a field on surveillance, yea.. charlie is getting an oil change, but the boys are then going to met and greet clients today..

Stacey and I are in the office doing paperwork...marketing and well..

the life as a PI .. we never sleep, sometimes dont eat or pi

Its Cold Outside

Tho its cold, im working a few hours today and so are some of my investigators.. Leroy is doing serves, the rest im not sure, but.. we have to live up to the Best Investigation Agency of 2010 as Voted by the Legal Intelligencer followers.. so.. we work 365 7 days a week.

got a question? email us at harrisinvestigations@verizon.net

wonder what we do.. check out www.harrisinvestigations.net

Voted the Legal Intelligencers Best of 2010 Investigation Agency

Funny a few weeks back i found out from a client, we were voted on of the 7 best investigation agencies of the year in the Philadelphia area. Only being in business for ourselves since December 2005, i figured it was a mistake and we were a write in. But believe it or not, there we were. One of 7, and the others, well they have been around a long while.. I figured heck, we didnt have a chance. Then this week to find out we TOOK HOME THE GOLD, I was well shocked. But i actually talked to the people running the pole and we won. This is awesome to our team, and a very uplifting experience. A high i hope we can ride a while. Yes, I have been in this business since 12-1987 but to beat out actual companies that have been in business that long against us the new comers since 2005. Wow..

Charlie and I are greatful and thankful. Stacey, Leroy, Rob, Teri, Mike, Jan and Katlynn are excited to move forward.

We hope to live up to the reputation and title we were given

Call us with anything... any time.. 888-484-9827

New office Staff

Please feel free to call our offices and Welcome Stacey, our office manager and Leroy our investigator.

We now can handle cases we never could before.. moving forward in the 2010-2011 year should be awesome

Our Newest Services

Private Investigators at Harris Investigations, LLC's motto is: Large Enough To Serve Your Needs, Yet Small Enough To Care !!
In September 2010, we hired on a new full time investigator. Leroy brings alot of new services to round out our investigation team. Leroy will work on and provide assistance in the following types of Invetigations, some new to us.


Activity Checks

Art Investigations

Background Investigations

Child Abuse Investigations

Computer Forenscis

Criminal Investigations and support

Civil Investigation and support

Domestic Investigations

Drug Investigations

Due DIligence

Employment and Pre Employment Issues

Expert Witness

Explosives

General Investigations

Homicide and Death Investigations

Insurance/Fraud Investigations

Interviewing and Witness Locating

Missing Persons

Nursing Homes Abuse

Organized Crime

Photography

Profiling

Retail Issues

School Security

Security Consulting and Training

Security Officer Deployment

Sex Crimes

Surveillance

Undercover Operations

Workmen's Compensation Investigations

7 Best Business Practices for Process Servers

According to ServeNow.com Allison Petty..

Being an effective process server is about more than just handling the summons. It’s important to have good business practices as well. Here are some tips to help process servers run their businesses smoothly and efficiently.

Be Professional

The job of a process server is a crucial step in the legal process. People who employ process servers are counting on them to do the job quickly and efficiently. Process servers who are sloppy or make mistakes can be costly and embarrassing to their clients. Therefore, it is important for process servers to act professionally and competently at all times, as a reflection of the seriousness with which they take their responsibilities.

Be Responsive

Everyone values responsiveness. This is especially true of people in the legal profession who are likely to employ process servers. Attorneys, like most people, are working on a deadline, and they do not like to be kept waiting. Process servers should return all calls and e-mails as soon as possible.

Have Good E-mail Etiquette

Along with responding to e-mails as soon as possible, process servers should make sure to use proper grammar in their e-mails. People who use process servers have often attained high levels of education and operate with a great deal of professionalism, and they expect the same from those they employ. Use spell-check and re-read your e-mails to make sure their meaning is clear.

Make sure someone is there to answer the phone at all times. This could be a receptionist or other office worker, but make sure the person is polite, professional, and good at taking notes. People generally prefer to talk to a person rather than a machine, especially if they are calling to inquire about the services of someone such as a process server. If a competent person answers the phone, potential clients are more likely to feel that their business is important to you and your business.

Maintain Good Organizational Practices

Process servers must maintain accurate records, and doing so requires a foolproof organizational process. Make sure you can find files that you need, as soon as you need them. Keep an accurate and updated calendar of any appointments you may have. An effective process server must be meticulous, and that attention to detail should be obvious in all of your business dealings or operations.

Use Business Cards and Letterhead

Process servers should have their own business cards and letterhead. Correspondence written on letterhead automatically lends professionalism to the sender and the content. Business cards are virtually free advertising, and process servers never know when they might meet a potential client with whom they can exchange cards.

Mind Your Manners

There’s a reason Mom always told you to say “please,” “thank you,” “ma’am” and “sir.” These words show that you respect the person with whom you are communicating, but they also tend to engender respect and warm feelings in return. Process servers should always take the time to say “thank you.” They are just two words, but they can go a long way.

If you practice these things every day, it will inspire confidence from your clients and in-turn create repeat business and potential referrals

A Day in the life....

I get calls every day... for things they see Pi's do on TV. I have to tell people many times a day, we are in NO way like Tv and no you cant do that nor can I. I get calls that they want a cell phone record of all the calls, that they want a gps put in a phone, they want one on a car etc. Of course all of that i cant and wont do.

This is a dying field, but that is not becuase we dont want to be Pi's its becuase of the advent of the internet. Cheating spouses can get caught on the itnernet.

People swear Net Detective and google searches are better than we are. Some Insurance companies dont care any more

Criminal investigators and reconstructionist are the way to go right now, but they too know it can change in a minute.

any more its 90 percent of the day marketing and 10 percent working.

God bless the PI!

Today's Pi

With the advent of everything on the internet, Pi's seem to be going by the wayside. Unfortunately people think the internet is gospel and true when the truth is , its far from the truth. Just today i had someone call to get the holder of a phone number. His police sources couldnt get it but i did. Then the client doubted my information becuase the the internet stated it was a differnt phone provider and in a differnt city all together. I told them dont call me i will call you. I stand by my search but you can use Net Detective, Spiesonline, Intellus or what ever you want. Good hard footwork beast all those sites hands down.

Go a head and play PI yourself but i guarentee you, the information will be 80 % untruth and 20 % accurate. You get what you pay for i always say!

Many people who suspect their long term partners of infidelity will initially be very reluctant to look into hiring private investigators to prove or disprove their fears. Private detectives are often depicted in films in a certain way going about their business of private investigations in a very cloak and dagger manner but the truth is often far removed from this and hiring investigators can be a really wise decision. Just dont think they are going to look, act and be as sucessful the first time around like on TV.

Keeping in mind the nature of your relationship and how you wish to confront your partner over suspected infidelity, a private investigator can be an easier and more reliable option than trying to investigate a situation yourself. Your emotions will be running high and you cannot account for how you will feel if or when you find yourself in the situation where you catch your partner and their lover together. The impartiality of a third person may make situations easier to handle going forward should a divorce proceeding take place or a child custody battle.

Ensure that you research the investigators before deciding to hire them. You may feel uncomfortable about discussing your situation with several investigators but it is important that you are thorough in the process of selecting someone. You need to ask about their hourly rates as well as any other costs that may be incurred during their investigation. Some investigators charge additional costs for taking photographs or using other staff members in your investigation. Before employing the services of a private eye, the are many things to consider, not least what the financial cost may be, but hiring experienced private investigators, such as us at Harris Investigations, LLC, should mean that they will be able to give you an indication of what your reasonable costs will be and an estimate of the time that it might take to uncover the information that you require.

Communicate honestly and throughly with your investigative agency and you will be pleasantly surprized!

So you want to be a Private Investigator......

Please understand.. this is in NO WAY like on TV, we are not Magnum PI, Rockford, Dog the Bounty Hunter or anything else you might think of on Tv. This is HARD work. Many Pi's that were in business 5 years ago are no longer in business now. This is a cut throat business. Your best friend or competition can be here today and gone tommorow. Everyone is trying to one up the other guy or back stab their best friend so it seems.

We get calls daily.. how do I become a Pi? Do you have any openings? the answer is and has been for the past 2 years.. NO.. I have let all my staff go except my partner and I. My daughter helps in the office after school and works summer mornings answering phones and filing. My son helps my husband. My parents help out when we are in need of an extra body.

I love my job. Have been in this field since 1987 and wouldnt want to do anything else, but its to the point where I have to find something else to do with this work... Every day we spend 10 hours marketing and 2 hours working, just to stay a step ahead

I honestly can say.. think twice before you want to get into this field.. unless you have a special thing you do no one else can or does.. its not the next few years are not the time to be here.

More information can be found at www.harrisinvestigations.net or by calling our offices 888-484-9827

another good one

Ethics in an Electronic Era: 50 Ways to Get in Ethical Trouble with Technology
June 18th, 2010 • Related • Filed Under • Print This Post • ShareThis
The Electronic Peephole: Digital Evidence in Family Law Investigations
Every Private Investigator Needs a Digital Audio Recorder
How Can I Identify or Locate the Originator of a Digital Image, Illustration or Photograph?
Georgia PI’s Will be Prohibited from Using Hidden GPS Tracking Devices
Solving Cases with Voice Stress Analysis (VSA) Technology
Forensic Case Review & Analysis for Criminal Defense Investigations
Filed Under: Technology
Tags: ethics • Private Investigation • technology
Editor’s note: This article was originally written for attorneys but we felt that each of these ethical pitfalls applied to professional investigators, too.

Technology makes everything easier and faster. In fact, it makes it possible to commit malpractice at warp speed. We can fail to represent diligently, lose our clients data, perform incompetently, and violate the rules regarding attorney advertising—all in sixty seconds or less.

There are so many ways to potentially commit malpractice with technology that it is impossible to list them all. Still, let us make a credible stab at some of the more common missteps.

50 Ways to Get in Ethical Trouble with Technology
1. Use illegal software. You know who you are. You buy academic versions of software and use them in your law office. You buy a single license for an application and install it on three computers, contrary to the license agreement. You find a neat piece of software that is free for personal use, and you use it on your law office computer. “Naughty, naughty” is all we’ll say, but the Business Software Alliance (BSA) will say far more.

Potential liability for EACH copyright violation: $150,000. Average out-of-court settlement: $80,000. Have they been in our area? Yes, at least six times that we know of. Yes, they’ve come to law firms. They come with a U.S. Marshal and immediate ex parte authority to inspect your computers. If you are in violation of the copyright law at the time of inspection, you are toast. Intent is irrelevant. The moral? Make sure that you are properly licensed – and if you have a reasonable size firm, conduct an annual software audit. For heaven’s sake, have all the licenses in a single file.

2. Give legal advice in your blog. Blogs are not the place to give legal advice. Moreover, if someone in your firm has a blog, you need to be very sure that it conforms to insurance industry requirements. A great many insurers will not insure a law firm if anyone in the firm blogs and more and more are beginning to offer specific statements as to the kind of blogs they will – and will not – cover.

3. Spam to market. It is very tempting to market using some sort of bulk e-mail, but it simply is not legal to bulk market to folks who have no pre-existing business relationship with you. The (U.S) CAN-SPAM act has done little to control spam, but for a law firm, both real spam and the appearance of spamming can be deadly. This is a sure fire way to get your domain name blacklisted. This has happened to multiple law firms in our area – and to courts!

4. Get involved with a client via e-mail and give advice prior to the proper formation of a contract. This is all too easy to do, especially since many lawyers now have their e-mail addresses up on the Web. It is important to get the retainer agreement signed before the advice is the given, lest complications arise. Remember that your e-mail will leave a trail, so exercise extreme caution with anything that remotely seems like legal advice.

5. Get in trouble with your law society and decide to create your own defense by falsifying a document. Lest you think this far-fetched, a Fairfax County, Virginia attorney did exactly this. After a complaint was filed for failure to take any action in a case and letting the statute of limitations lapse, the attorney created a back-dated letter, purporting to show that he wrote the client closing the case, supposedly upon her specific instruction. The metadata that accompanied the document proved that the letter had been created two days before his response to the disciplinary board was due. He is no longer practicing law in Virginia.

6. Keep slipshod trust account records. The rules here are no different than they were in the paper world. Electronic records speak eloquently when attorneys fail to reconcile them, or dip into them when fees have not been earned. Worst of all are the many cases where attorneys put monies in the operational account, when they clearly should have been escrowed. If the firm uses a good accounting package, such as Quickbooks, any attempt to “fiddle the books” will be logged. Honesty remains the best policy.

7. Send a document to a client to sign and don’t PDF and lock it. All too commonly, clients take it into their heads to alter a document sent to them by their lawyer. THEN they sign and send it back. Be careful – PDF and lock down all important documents – the exception is when you are working on drafts of a document, when it is easier to use Word and the “Track Changes” feature. However, once done, PDF and lock the document before it is sent around for signature!

8. Miss a court date because the e-mail notice was trapped by your spam filter. Don’t laugh – this just happened to a respected firm in Colorado. The court was not amused by counsel’s failure to show up and assessed sanctions against the firm, requiring it to pay for the opposing counsel’s time. For heaven’s sake, whitelist the domain of the court – and important client domains at well. Remember that you cannot shift the blame to a third party service provider, however much you might like to. Why? Because court rules say you can’t.

9. Don’t proofread. The difference between “I will consider a $100,000 settlement” and “I will not consider a $100,000 settlement” is vast. This is but one of many examples of how attorneys get in trouble by not proofreading. At the very least, they often sound like hapless sixth graders who haven’t got a grip on the simple declarative sentence, much less the spelling of fairly complicated words. You wouldn’t send out a real letter that way – don’t send out an e-mail that way. This is especially true if you use voice recognition software. Although the programs are good at what they do, they are not perfect, by a long stretch – in fact, many judges cite the failure to adequately proof documents generated by voice-recognition software as a chief peeve.

10. Open an attachment from someone you don’t know or from someone you do know but where the circumstances are suspicious. Dumb, even if you DO have a good antivirus program. Just because you have good, even great protection doesn’t mean you can’t be the first kid on your block to get a virus for which there is not (yet) an anti-virus signature to defeat it. E-mail addresses can be spoofed – easily. Therefore, if you get an e-mail from a client that contains an attachment and you were not expecting it – and there is no explanation in the text of the message that makes sense, don’t open it. Call the client and verify that they sent you something.

11. Go to a place on the Internet you wouldn’t like mom (or the senior partner) to know about. This is precisely how spyware gets on your machines. Adult sites are particularly notorious for doing this, but many sites (even those with screensavers, computer utilities, recipes, etc.) do this to make extra money. Even a judge once called us after opening a “farm girls and their animals” e-mail attachment. He found himself trapped in an endless barrage of pop-up porn which refused to go away. Understandably, he was somewhat reluctant to call the courthouse IT staff. Enough said?

12. Use the Auto-Complete function with abandon. This feature is so helpful and so potentially deadly. It is incredibly easy to let this function go and send an e-mail to someone other than the intended recipient. At best, the result is embarrassing. At worst, it is a genuine problem where you have perhaps sent confidential data to an unrelated third party or, the nightmare of nightmares, to opposing counsel.

13. Use weak or non-existent passwords. Passwords are critical defenses, so do not use your pet’s name, your child’s name or the name of your favorite sports team. Make your password complex, including numeric characters. A good tip is to do a short sentence that you won’t forget.

14. Write in anger. An old chestnut, and still one to bear in mind. The unfortunate part of electronic communications is that when someone writes us something idiotic, we can immediately reply and point out the complete lunacy of what has just been transmitted. This is particularly tempting when a lawyer is under attack. Don’t do it! Cool off. Go take a walk. Do anything other than reply immediately with words that cannot be recalled and may live forever and come back to haunt you! Remember, there is no “do over” key for e-mail.

15. Hit the “Send” button quickly. We’re all so busy that hitting the send button promptly after composing an e-mail seems so natural. ‘Done with this, on to the next thing’. There is an inherent danger here. Look at the message one more time – is it going to the right people? Have you proofread? Is there anything wrong with the tone or substance? Just pause a minute. Remember – each time you send an e-mail, you must see it on the front page of the Globe & Mail, on a billboard on the highway, and in front of your mom’s face. If it can be in all three places without causing embarrassment or a problem, you’re probably ready to hit “Send.” Did we mention a warning about the lack of a “do over” key?

16. Make it impossible to find your own files. Files should be named appropriately, including the client name and the kind of document, perhaps the date. Having a good, descriptive name, you must now create a structure (one of your own or through a case management system) that makes it easy to find what you are looking for. If you do not have a case management or document management system, make sure that you have electronic files named by client, with descriptive titles for each file, including the client name in case you mistakenly move the file to another folder.

17. Rely completely on your computer calendar. So what happens when your Internet goes down or your server crashes? The authors are devoted adherents of the tech world, but it is always prudent to have a secondary calendar that can provide a fallback measure.

18. Leave your computers on at night. Are you nuts? Do you personally know each member of the cleaning crew? Can you vouch for each of them? Robbers who broke into an entertainment complex in Colorado recently found themselves unable to open the safe even though they had the code. Perplexed, they looked around and found a computer that was on and Googled information about the safe. Moments later, the safe was open and they left with $12,000 – so you see, it is very helpful to have computers on at night – helpful for all the wrong sorts of people.

19. Don’t change the defaults. Every script kiddy and macho hacker knows the defaults of all common computer-related devices. In fact, they are posted on the Internet. If you don’t want a burglar in your house, you always, at a minimum, lock the door. Changing the defaults is locking the door.

20. Don’t secure your wireless network at home or at work. Wherever you work, your wireless network should be secure. This means that you must change such things as the SSID and the default admin password. Disable the advertisement of the wireless network and enable some sort of encryption for the cloud. Create MAC filtering rules to limit connections to those that are predefined. After all, you shouldn’t be in the business of creating the neighborhood hotspot.

21. Don’t have adequate anti-virus and anti-spyware software. This is “bare bones” protection these days. You should have one good anti-virus solution and preferably two anti-spyware solutions these days. If you have a subscription, don’t let it lapse.

22. Don’t backup – and almost as bad – don’t do “test restores” of the backups. Most lawyers should be doing incremental (or differential) backups daily and full backups at least weekly. If you’re doing less, think again about the potential danger. Also, backup media fails over time, so don’t assume that you have a good backup without doing periodic test restores. In case after case, we’ve seen lawyers rely on backup tapes only to find that they were corrupted when disaster struck and those tapes held the only backup of the law firm data. External hard drives increase reliability, but should also be changed in rotation just like tapes.

23. Use an online backup system. This one is controversial. There is nothing inherently wrong with an online backup system from a technical standpoint. WE hasten to add that we have seen several total failures when it comes to restoring backup from online backup providers. Even in the best scenario, someone else is holding your data. What will you do if they belly up? What if they have a disgruntled employee who sells your data? What kind of REAL recourse is there in a situation like that? At the very least, encrypt the data before you send it offsite!

24. Don’t have a disaster recovery plan. Do you think the lawyers caught in Katrina ever imagined that they would face a disaster that was so large it would involve both their home and office? Many of them had backup media at home and lost that media as well as the computers/server at work. This was compounded by not having power or cell phone towers. The communication breakdown was further aggravated by food and water shortages, office buildings being declared closed by authorities, etc., etc. In our world, where natural disasters present plenty of hazards, the ante has been upped by our realization that no one – anywhere – is safe from acts of terrorism as well. Many of the Katrina lawyers lost their practices forever because they were not sufficiently prepared. When it comes to disasters, an ounce of prevention is indeed worth a pound of cure.

25. Fail to have an employee termination policy or fail to follow it. Our cynicism comes from the number of ex-employees who have caused technological havoc by accessing the law firm network once their authority to do so has expired. When you are ready to terminate someone, never let them have access to their computer post-termination. Immediately cut all access to your systems from the outside and forward all of their business e-mail to someone else. Collect all their keys. Change the security codes if necessary.

26. Have a laptop without a power-on password, encryption, or biometric access. In a world where laptops are the #1 stolen item at airports (and they rank in the top five at hotels, from cars, etc.), you must take precautions. The new “finger-swipe” biometrically accessed laptops are no longer out of anyone’s price range. Encryption of data is no longer difficult. At the very least, make sure no one can get on your laptop at all without that power-on password. It is surely malpractice not to take this most elementary of precautions.

27. Put client data on an unencrypted thumb drive. Look at the size of a thumb drive. Smaller even than our now very small cell phones. How often do we lose cell phones? About 50 per cent of us have lost one at one time or another. Here we have an even smaller device. It is critical that data on a thumb drive be protected either by requiring a password or by encrypting a portion of the drive which carries client data.

28. Have client data on a cell phone that doesn’t require a password. As our business frequently forensically images cell phones, it always strikes us as remarkable how few cell phones we see that require a password. It may well be that we are simply the “hurry up” generation that doesn’t have time for that extra step, but if there is client data on the phone, it certainly seems like we MUST take the time to ensure that client data cannot be accessed if we accidentally lose our phones in a cab!

29. Don’t scrub the metadata. It is impossible to overstate the importance of this. Court briefs have actually been filed with metadata intact. In one memorable comment, an attorney asked if anyone thought that the “yo-yo brain judge” would understand what was being argued. As you can imagine, the judge was not amused as he viewed the comment in the electronic document. Our favorite metadata scrubber is Metadata Assistant, by Payne Consulting (about $80 per seat) www.payneconsulting.com. Already own Adobe Acrobat? Convert your document to PDF and that will strip out almost all the metadata, usually everything you’d care about.

30. Redact PDF with black boxes. Even the U.S. government has pulled this gaffe, thus exposing the placement of troops in Iraq. More notable to the legal community, a law firm involved in the infamous suit against AT&T for intercepting citizen e-mails and sharing them with the government made the same error in one of its briefs. Ordered by the court to release some documents but with certain sensitive information redacted, the firm clumsily used black bars to do so. Journalists promptly pounced on the black boxes and stripped them out, revealing incredibly sensitive data which seemed to confirm the allegations of the Electronic Freedom Foundation. If you are going to redact information, use professional software such Redax or upgrade to Acrobat 8.0, which includes redaction and Bates stamping ability.

31. Donate your old computers to charity (or otherwise dispose of them) without wiping the hard drives. As much as you’d think this was obvious, every time a college student does a new study with hard drives purchased on eBay, they find law firm data. If you have someone who is IT competent, it is a simple matter to wipe the drives effectively. If you do not, it might cost you $100 per drive to have it professionally wiped. A small price to avoid a big security hole.

32. Be a “chatty Kathy” online. We have become a society of online chipmunks, happily chattering away in chat rooms, on blogs, on listservs, and via IMs and e-mails. You should assume, at all times, that whatever you transmit electronically will live forever. Remember, deleted isn’t deleted and the power of computer forensics to recover deleted data is fearsome. If you don’t want to answer for what you’ve written three years later, don’t send it!

33. Don’t have an Internet and e-mail usage policy for your office. Are you daft? Do you know what these people do, especially when you are not in the office? All of the things we tell you not to do in these tips are exactly what they will do. They will check what’s going on in their soap operas, visit the celebrity gossip columns, etc. Not to mention the temptation to post things on a listserv (with your law firm signature attached of course) that may not be precisely the representation of your firm that you would choose. Make a policy and then enforce it.

34. Don’t have a policy about what data may and may not leave on removable media (thumb drives, iPods, phones, PDAs, etc. This is precisely how much of your confidential data leaves the office. If they don’t e-mail it, they download it. So have a policy – there are even utilities to help you monitor anything being downloaded via USB drives.

35. Don’t train your employees about computer security. There are few ways to get more “bang for the buck” than by training those who work for you. Most of them don’t know how to spot a phishing attack or how to recognize social engineering over the phone that might persuade them to give up a password. Give them the benefit of safe computing training and policy training and you will have built a worthy moat around the castle which contains your client information.

36. Hesitate to terminate a disgruntled employee that you’re thinking about firing. This is a common scenario – you know you have someone who is angry or disgruntled. Perhaps you didn’t give them a raise, perhaps they don’t like your demeanor – the reason doesn’t matter. Once you are aware of a potential problem, the likelihood of misconduct increases exponentially. As soon as you have your “employment law ducks” in order, let them go. If they do any work on your network whatsoever, this is an especially firm rule. As one law firm system administrator boasted, “I can bring this firm to its knees anytime I want.” Believe him, for he speaks the truth!

37. Fail to encrypt your e-mail. OK, this is a red herring. No one requires encryption. Very few lawyers use it. It isn’t hard, but it takes a little extra time. Still, the real message here is that important things (such as proprietary data) should not be transmitted electronically without being encrypted. Think before you use e-mail!

38. Converse via e-mail with your client using the client’s work e-mail. This is always a troublesome area, since it is not yet fully clear whether the attorney-client privilege will apply to e-mail sent from a work machine, whether via a work e-mail address or a personal e-mail address. In at least one case in Virginia, the judge found that there was no privilege between attorney and client for anything sent from a work computer. Period. As experts, we believe that decision was wrong, but that doesn’t change the current practical implications for lawyers. Better reasoned decisions from other states have indicated that the privilege would not be lost if the client took reasonable measures to protect the privilege (e.g., not using the work e-mail address, keeping attorney-client e-mails segregated on the hard drive in an appropriately named folder).

39. Fail to address e-mail correspondence in your retainer. Given the paragraph above, the perils of e-mail correspondence should be evident. Many lawyers believe, and we agree, that there should be a separate paragraph in your retainer pertaining to e-mail, in which the client specifically agrees that e-mail communication is acceptable or not acceptable. It should discourage the client from communicating from work and also stress the importance of not divulging sensitive data in e-mail. Many lawyers, including one of the authors, will ensure that this paragraph is separately initialed so that it is abundantly clear that the client understood potential risks before using e-mail as a vehicle of communication.

40. Have a file sharing program on your computer or network. C’mon, fork over the money for the new Elton John CD or for the new Harry Potter movie. File sharing of protected works not only constitutes copyright infringement, but it leaves your computer/network wide open to the Internet. If you have kids at home, and work from home, you may not even be aware that your kids have installed file sharing programs. We have six kids, and yes, it happened to us. Forewarned is forearmed!

41. Enable file sharing between the workstations at your office. This is a tough one. Microsoft allowed peer-to-peer file sharing among Windows computers. Disable this feature if you have a server. Small offices will use file sharing to keep costs down and still allow access to client data from multiple computers. If you must use file sharing, limit and restrict the access. Require user IDs and passwords to get to the data. Don’t configure unrestricted access to your data since that’s what the hackers love.

42. Use copyrighted images on your website without a license. This is done all the time. It is incredibly simple to get royalty-free clip art or photos on the Internet. If you want something classier, the prices to get a license are generally quite modest. Folks are searching for infringing materials on the Internet all the time these days and there are sophisticated tools to help them. Don’t help the infringement bounty hunters!

43. Call yourself a specialist or an expert on your website. Play it safe—check your jurisdiction’s advertising rules.

44. Appear to promise results on your website. See number 43 above. If you even describe results of cases, you must explain that results are dependent on individual fact scenarios and state that case results do not guarantee or offer a prediction of the same result in another case. It should do this in bold type, in caps, and in a font size as large as the largest size font used to describe the case results.

45. Don’t have a disclaimer statement in your e-mail. This entry is here under protest. It is probably a good idea to have one, but most experts agree that disclaimers are pretty worthless and provide almost no protection. However, it is nice to put in the tagline that tells people what to do if they receive an e-mail message in error. Remarkably enough, most folks actually want to do the right thing and will tell you that they received your message in error. All things considered, it is better to know than not to know!

46. Decide you don’t need to know about electronic evidence. Sorry, but this is no longer possible. You can no longer make a deal with the opposing counsel that “I won’t go there if you won’t.” In a world where 95 per cent of data is created electronically and only a fraction of it is ever reduced to paper, you have no choice but to consider whether ESI (electronically stored information) may be a part of your case.

47. Mishandle or spoliate electronically stored information. Until recently, lawyers were getting away with this on a regular basis, but no longer. Judges have had enough, and are beginning to hand out sanctions like penny candy, mostly against clients, but now and again against the law firm as well. You must understand your client’s technology well enough to avoid spoliation and to determine where relevant evidence may be in order to preserve or produce it. If you are not up to speed, it is time to get there.

48. Violate password protected data. Outside of the workplace (where employers have the right to monitor what transpires on their networks), passwords create a right of privacy. It doesn’t matter who owns the computer. The right of privacy applies between spouses as well. Why? Because the law says so. If we had a one dollar for every time a spouse argued that they had the right to search their partner’s e-mails, we would be rich.

49. Accept or use telephone records obtained by pretexting. According to Wikipedia, “pretexting is the act of pretending to be someone who you are not by telling an untruth, or creating deception. The practice of pretexting typically involves tricking a telecom carrier into disclosing personal information of a customer, with the scammer pretending to be the customer.” This is against the law in some jurisdictions, if you know the records have been obtained by pretexting when they slide those records across the desk and you nonetheless take them.

50. Counsel your client to put a GPS tracking device on someone’s car without fully knowing the facts. These gadgets provide great evidence, but in many jurisdictions, it is illegal to put a GPS tracker on a vehicle unless you are that vehicle’s owner. There are no reported cases thus far, so we cannot tell you whether it is OK to put a GPS tracker on a car which both parties have purchased but which is still owned by the bank because there is a car loan. These are not dice we wish to roll.

This list could go on and on and on, but hopefully it is clear that there are significant dangers in the electronic world, waiting to trap the unwary lawyer. Here, at least, is a good starting point for making sure you’ve covered as many ethical bases as you can.



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interesting read from Pursuit Magazine

The Electronic Peephole: Digital Evidence in Family Law Investigations
June 18th, 2010 • Related • Filed Under • Print This Post • ShareThis
Ethics in an Electronic Era: 50 Ways to Get in Ethical Trouble with Technology
Every Private Investigator Needs a Digital Audio Recorder
Pretext: An Essential Recognized Investigative Technique
When Does Surveillance Become Stalking?
How Can I Identify or Locate the Originator of a Digital Image, Illustration or Photograph?
Recovering Deleted Emails (Video)
Filed Under: Private Investigation
Tags: child custody • computers • Divorce • email • in • law • Private Investigation • technology
Editor’s note: This article was originally written for attorneys concerning questions that often arise out of family law disputes but as private investigators are often called on to investigate matters involving divorce, infidelity and child custody matters we are often asked about the application of technology to develop evidence and information. The topics discussed in the article are all very applicable to anyone who handles these types of assignments.


Electronic evidence in family law cases cuts a wide swath these days. It consists of e-mails, text messages, instant messages, word processing documents, GPS data -and who knows what the next generation of mischief will bring? But let us begin with the diva of evidence in family law cases – spyware.

Spyware has made the notion of peeping through keyholes wonderfully quaint.

How much simpler it is to record your spouse/lover/significant other’s every keystroke and know for sure what they are up to without ever leaving the comfort of your computer station. Adultery is as old as time, but who would ever guess that cyber-adultery would be a commonplace phenomenon, and often the genesis of divorce?

Who would ever imagine that the authors would be interviewed by NBC, ABC, CBS, USA Network, NPR and Oprah’s “O” magazine, each interview focusing on the obviously sexy topic of spyware and divorce?

The legality of spyware used to be murky, at best. The courts have spoken of it only infrequently, so there is precious little guidance. How does a lawyer appropriately advise the client who wants to employ spyware, or who already has? How does a lawyer appropriately advise the client who believes that someone has used spyware to conduct surveillance on their computer usage? It is a dicey business, and fraught with risk for lawyer and client alike.

Before plunging into the legality of spyware, let us attempt to set the stage.

First and foremost, what constitutes spyware?

No one quite agrees, but generally speaking, it is software installed on a computer without the target user’s knowledge and meant to monitor the user’s conduct. Most of the time, in domestic practice, the target is e-mail and chat rooms, but the software will record everything the user does, including financial record keeping, the preparation in a word processing program of letters to counsel, or the keeping of business records. Some spyware is used to gather personally identifiable information like passwords, credit card numbers and Social Security numbers, all useful for those interested in fraud and identify theft. Some spyware programs will hijack your web browser, reset your home page, add toolbars, alter search results or send popup ads that cannot be closed, all intended to hawk some vendor’s products.

Spyware has become insidiously clever recently – many programs come with a persistent reinstaller – as soon as you attempt to remove it, it reloads itself. Many forms of spyware hide in Windows system files and even mimic the file names so the average user would have no idea that the files are in fact shielding spyware. The latest wrinkle with spyware is that it can turn the infected machine into a spam zombie. This means that your computer is being used as a relay point to send spam messages without your knowledge.


What are some of the spyware programs commonly in use?


These days, there are so many spyware manufacturers that it is well nigh impossible to list them all. They have such names as eBlaster, IamBigBrother, SpyAgent, Spy Buddy, Spector Pro, Keylogger Pro, Invisible Keylogger and 007 Spy Software. They have different features and have slightly different operating characteristics but they are all intended to spy on someone else’s computer use – stealthily. There are also hardware keystroke loggers such as KeyKatcher, a small, dongle-like device that fits in between the keyboard and the PC. It’s a modern day “bug” with a memory capacity of 64K, 128K, 256K and 4MB, able to store several weeks’ worth of typing, after which it can be removed and all the text downloaded onto another machine. The major advantage of the KeyKatcher is that no software will be able to detect its presence. The drawback, obviously, is that this requires that the person placing the KeyKatcher have continuing physical access to the machine. KeyKatcher is therefore primarily used by husbands and wives residing together. It is certainly cheap, beginning at $32.99. But in point of fact, having analyzed hundreds of computers in divorce cases, 100% of the time, a software spyware application was used instead of a hardware logging device.

How much does software spyware cost? Not much – $30-$100 is a common range, a cheap price for a heinous invasion of privacy. Two of the most devious spyware applications, eBlaster and Spector Pro, cost $99.95.

Will the user know that spyware has been installed?


No – these applications are exceedingly clever. They change their install dates, don’t show up as a running program, don’t show up in your list of programs, don’t show up in the “Add/Remove” function, and change their names to something that sounds like a benign – and boring – system file. Who would ever give the file name windowstht.dll another thought?

So how does spyware get installed? Clearly, if the spouses reside together, it is easy for one party or the other to install spyware. However, if the parties live apart and the spouse wishing to install spyware doesn’t have physical access to the other party’s machine, then there are methods of remotely installing spyware. As a for instance, the husband might send an electronic greeting card to the wife saying how sorry he is for the pain he’s caused, etc., etc. He sends the card as an attachment with a cover e-mail that says, “Honey, I’m so sorry for all the pain I’ve caused – the attached card helps me to express my real feelings.” Whether she loves him or hates him, she’s going to want to see the card so she opens the attachment. And bada-bing, the spyware downloads (invisibly) right along with the greeting card. In the same mode, perhaps he sends some cute photos of the kids when he took them to the beach. Irresistible to the wife – she opens them and the spyware, piggybacked on the photos, covertly installs itself and begins monitoring her online activities.

Fortunately, spyware programs cannot hide from skilled forensics examiners who know where these stalkers hide. This is one of the most difficult parts of computer forensics because you are specifically looking for something which intends to be invisible. In the vast majority of cases, the authors have found that significant amounts of data can often be uncovered, most notably the e-mail address to which the reports were sent. Once an attorney has that, if there is not currently a divorce proceeding on file, the attorney can file a John Doe suit and serve a subpoena on the Internet Service Provider to learn the identity of the account holder.

What is the status of laws explicitly dealing with spyware?


As of October, 2008, there is no federal anti-spyware law. The House of Representatives has passed (again) two bills designed to punish those who install spyware on people’s computers without their knowledge. This charade has gone on for at least five years, with the bills stalling when they get to the Senate, reputedly due to the lobbying efforts of the Direct Marketing Association. All such bills say they will pre-empt state law, so it will be fascinating to see what Congress agrees to, assuming it ever agrees.

Many states currently have legislation which is intended to prevent some kinds of spyware. Sometimes the laws are anti-spyware specific, sometimes they are computer trespass, unauthorized computer access or privacy laws and sometimes they are wiretap statutes which apply to electronic communications. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, as of March 24, 2008, there were 14 states with specific anti-spyware statutes: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah and Washington.

Note that Virginia is not mentioned, which makes us nervous about the accuracy of the NCSL’s information. Below is an excerpt from Virginia’s Computer Trespass law, which clearly includes the use of spyware in paragraph eight (but note the possible exception for a machine which is marital property). Also note that it was clear under the previous spyware law that interspousal interception was prohibited – however, the 2007 changes to the law added the “computer owner’s authorization” language.

§ 18.2-152.4. Computer trespass; penalty.

A. It shall be unlawful for any person, with malicious intent, to:

8. Install or cause to be installed, or collect information through, computer software that records all or a majority of the keystrokes made on the computer of another without the computer owner’s authorization

How about other laws, not specific to spyware?

Aha, an excellent question. Herein lays many a trap in which a lawyer might unwittingly step. First, let us consider the federal laws:

The Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 prohibits the interception and disclosure of wire and electronic communications. It also applies to those who use information they know or have reason to know was intercepted. Distinctly not a good thing if your client has violated this Act.
The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act prohibits a person from accessing a computer without authorization or from exceeding authorized access and thereby obtaining certain governmental, financial or consumer information. Clearly, spyware is often used for these purposes.
Because this area is indeed a sand trap, there are also a number of state laws that may apply. Some examples include:

Computer privacy laws
Wiretap laws
Computer trespass laws
Fraud laws
Harassment laws
Stalking laws
Voyeur laws
Not only may spyware violate a myriad of laws, some laws do and some don’t carry with them a clause excluding the admission of illegally obtained evidence. And where they don’t contain such a clause, especially at the state level, it is generally held to be at the discretion of the trial court whether or not to admit the evidence. If admitted, the illegality goes toward weight.

What are the leading cases in this area?

An oldie but a goodie, White v. White (N.J., 2001), in which a wife accessed the husband’s e-mails which were stored in an America Online file cabinet on the marital computer. No password was required to get to the e-mails, though the husband was unaware of that. The court held that the wife had violated no laws in getting to those e-mail messages.

In O’Brien v. O’Brien (Florida, 2005), the wife installed spyware to monitor her husband’s conduct. He had begun playing dominos with a woman he met through Yahoo, and then began playing, well, something more than dominos. Under the Florida Wiretap Act, the data gleaned from the spyware was not required to be excluded; however, the trial court had chosen to exclude it. The appellate court found that the exclusion of the data was within the trial court’s discretion and it therefore declined to disturb the lower court’s decision.

The case of Potter v. Havlicek (S.D. Ohio, 2007) involved the question of whether evidence obtained via monitoring software on a family computer could be introduced even though the act of obtaining the evidence may have violated the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. The court noted that the ECPA applies only to “oral and wire communications” and not electronic. Judge Rose noted that several courts, including the Sixth Circuit, have concluded the Congress intentionally omitted illegally intercepted electronic communications from the category of cases in which the remedy of suppression is available. He also noted that “this is not to imply, however, that disclosure of the information in state court by {the husband} or his attorney might not be actionable civilly or criminally under 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2511.” With respect to the husband’s argument that the e-mail were not intercepted in transit by the monitoring software, Rose discerned “some merit in the position of Judge Reinhardt who opposes a hyper-technical application of the contemporaneous requirement emasculating the ECPA” (referring to Konop v. Hawaiin Airlines, Inc. (9th Cir. 2002). The same position was adopted by the First Circuit in U.S. v. Councilman (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2005), applying a law similar to the ECPA. Rose further noted that there is no interspousal exception to the ECPA.

For the record, the authors believe that Judge Rose articulates the correct view of the law, and one which we believe is beginning to prevail across the nation.

What are your clients up to?


Attorneys who do domestic relations work can answer this question easily. If you want to check out what your clients are reading online, just type “cheating spouse” in Google and prepare yourself for a slime bath. One typical site is http://www.chatcheaters.com/, which contains real life stories, ads for keystroke loggers, advice on how to catch cheaters, and even a PI and lawyer directory. Most of the time, clients will have surfed all over the Net on this subject and purchased/installed/used spyware before they ever consult an attorney. They will arrive in your office with printouts of e-mails that scorch your eyebrows as you read them. They are generally quite pleased with their resourcefulness and blissfully unaware that they may have broken a law or multiple laws. The common belief is that “the computer belongs to both of us so I can do anything I want.” When told they may have broken a law, they become ashen-faced, and are stunned to think that the “guilty” party now may have a cause of action against the “victim.”

But what about monitoring kids?

You do have the right to monitor your minor children. However, you absolutely may not use the software installed to monitor your children as an excuse to ALSO monitor your spouse, ex-spouse, etc. To the extent that there are communications, for instance, between an ex-spouse and a child that show up in the child’s e-mail, you are (so far as current cases are concerned) ok in having those communications. However, the point must not be to spy on the spouse – there should be a concern involving the child which motivates the usage of the monitoring software.

What should you advise a client who thinks there may be spyware on his/her computer?

If it sounds to you like the facts warrant it, you’ll want to have a forensic technologist find and document the spyware’s existence. This software is so squirrelly that the evidence a lay person can get, if any, is so fragmentary as to be worthless in court. Far better to let an expert find and document the spyware. In any event, you don’t want someone trampling all over the evidence, changing access dates, etc. Sometimes, the expert’s advice will be to let the spyware continue operating briefly while a sniffer is employed to determine precisely where the information is going once it leaves the target network. The data contents of the transmission may be unreadable as more and more software packages are encrypting the communications prior to sending the information.

Clearly, an attorney cannot threaten a criminal charge. However, we’ve seen the use of spyware used as a trump card time and again. Once the use of the spyware is proven, all the attorney needs to do is communicate that fact to the other side’s counsel for the implications to be clear. Sometimes, this is done in the course of a deposition where the deponent will deny under oath having used spyware, only to have the evidence shown to them. Likewise, if they take the Fifth, but the evidence is extant, it is clear to all what the risks are. To put it bluntly, cases in which the use of spyware can be proven tend to settle quickly.

If your objective, particularly in a case of modest assets, is to simply get the spyware off, you can have the client try running a reputable anti-spyware program, such as Webroot’s SpySweeper or Sunbelt’s CounterSpy. They may not find ALL spyware, but they will find most of it. Beware, however, because the installation of these programs will be detected by the spyware, thereby alerting anyone monitoring computer activity that you are “on to them.” At that point, they may well use remote technology to instruct the software to remove itself and delete all traces of its existence.

If your choice is to simply find and eradicate the software, just be mindful that you will have no evidence of the computer spying to use in the future. Also, you must stress to your client that they should never again open an attachment from anyone likely to be interested in remotely installing spyware. A caveat: Some people are convinced that there is spyware on their computer when there is not. If you have a competent computer forensics expert and they say there is no spyware, the client is probably the one mistaken. One frequent explanation – the spouse has guessed or cracked a password – which is also illegal – so make sure you consider all the alternatives!


What should you advise a client who is using spyware to monitor someone else’s computer activity?

Get it off. Now. No excuses. It certainly violates federal law, and possibly Virginia state law as well, depending on the facts.

It is important to explain to anyone who has used spyware that they may be compelled to take the Fifth in depositions or in court.

It is a fact of life that many clients seem unable to “pull the plug” on their spying. Remarkably enough, the spying itself often becomes an addiction and the perpetrator is unwilling or unable to break the addiction. It may be necessary to be quite forceful, stating unequivocally that you will have to withdraw from the case if possible criminal conduct continues.

What do I advise a client who is fairly certain there is significant evidence on a marital computer?

No spyware. Wrong solution and it will likely end up getting the client in trouble rather than the spouse who is actually engaging in bad conduct. The first thing you’ll want to do is have a forensic image made of the computer. This can be done without the spouse knowing while he/she is at work or away on a business trip. Generally, if a computer is received in the morning, a forensic technologist can make and verify the image, returning the computer in the afternoon. At this point, at least you have a record. You will not want to authorize the technologist to analyze the image until a court order has been received, which will protect both attorney and client against any civil or criminal claim of computer trespass or invasion of computer privacy. If the court order is not a current possibility, and perhaps no divorce action is underway as yet, you still have a forensic image to examine when the time is right and you have the court’s imprimatur.

What about cell phones?

What if a spouse brings us a cell phone that is marital property? If there is no PIN required to access the phone, what law prevents her from authorizing the accessing of the phone’s data, assuming it is marital property? We can’t think of one. With the PIN of course, the phone owner has established an expectation of privacy – with that being the case, we will “freeze” the data by imaging it if possible (some phones will not allow for data extraction while a PIN is active), but we will not analyze it without a court order.

Can you go to the cell phone provider for text messages? Not usually. AT&T says it stores the actual text of cell phone messages only for 48 hours. Verizon has recently said it will hold the text message for two weeks. There is no blanket statement to make here: the carriers all have different rules and change them constantly.

And about that GPS

Perhaps the hottest surveillance device of the last year has been the GPS, which many a spouse or lover has resorted to in order to track the location of the spouse or lover suspected of wanderlust. In Virginia, it is illegal to place a GPS tracking device on a vehicle in which you do not have an ownership interest. In the average family law case, the cars are marital property, but there are a significant number of cases in which the car is titled in only one name, or the car is leased. If you own the car, you can track it. If you don’t own the car, you can’t. Need the law to prove it?

See Virginia Sec. 46.2-1088.6, which says that recorded data may only be accessed by the motor vehicle owner or with the consent of the motor vehicle owner or the owner’s agent or legal representative; except for 1) a contracted service such as LoJack 2) service of vehicle or 3) access by an emergency responder service. If both parties own a vehicle, you’re probably fine, but our observation has been that these devices are being used willy-nilly without respect to ownership.

It has been our experience that private investigators use these devices regularly, remaining blissfully unaware of the law. In fact, many a lawyer has disputed our assertion that Virginia has such a law until we produce the actual statute! It is very much a case of “say it ain’t so!” But wishing it were otherwise doesn’t change the law. Note that cell phone monitoring chips are frequently intended to monitor the use of children, a very legitimate purpose. But there is nothing to keep them from being used as a device to monitor a spouse’s location.


What about filming bad behavior?

Out of luck there, if the law violates Sec. 18.2-386.1. Unlawful filming, videotaping or photographing of another; penalty. A portion of that law is excerpted here:

It shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly and intentionally videotape, photograph, or film any nonconsenting person or create any videographic or still image record by any means whatsoever of the nonconsenting person if (i) that person is totally nude, clad in undergarments, or in a state of undress so as to expose the genitals, pubic area, buttocks or female breast in a restroom, dressing room, locker room, hotel room, motel room, tanning bed, tanning booth, bedroom or other location; or (ii) the videotape, photograph, film or videographic or still image record is created by placing the lens or image-gathering component of the recording device in a position directly beneath or between a person’s legs for the purpose of capturing an image of the person’s intimate parts or undergarments covering those intimate parts when the intimate parts or undergarments would not otherwise be visible to the general public; and when the circumstances set forth in clause (i) or (ii) are otherwise such that the person being videotaped, photographed, filmed or otherwise recorded would have a reasonable expectation of privacy.

Nowhere do we see an interspousal exception. So a webcam in the bedroom, which is frequently suggested by surveillance sites, does not seem like a stellar idea.

How about obtaining phone records via pretexting?

You could do it once, but no more. Check out The Virginia Code § 18.2-152.17, Fraudulent procurement, sale, or receipt of telephone records. If telephone records have been obtained under false pretenses, a lawyer dare not even accept the proffered documents without violating the law. Though this law was enacted in 2006, a good many Virginia lawyers remain blissfully unaware of it. The federal government passed the Telephone Records and Privacy Protection Act of 2006, which was signed into law in January of 2007, also outlawing pretexting. Like the state law, the act of receiving the documents may also constitute a crime. The days of private investigators routinely obtaining phone records for lawyers via pretexting are officially, and probably forever, over.


Final words


As excruciatingly slow as Congress is, the outcry over spyware will probably lead to the passage of a federal law explicitly outlawing spyware, probably when the economy has, if indeed it will, settle down. As for state law regarding spyware and other forms of surveillance, you can probably anticipate a lot of tinkering. One of the problems with the new technology and the consequent new laws is that we have so little case law to guide us. The vast majority of these cases settle. Added to that, no sooner has the law caught up to technology than technology leapfrogs the law, which again limps gamely behind it, playing a never-ending game of catch-up.



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   5.) A sweeping pretext to all major insurance companies, and minor 
ones that you find advertising in the area the target lives in. Most 
minor carriers resell major provider insurance.    
    

 
        Repo Script          
Tracer: This is investigator "Tracer", out of "Whatever County".
I am trying to reach "John Debtor", regarding a replenvin order, that
was sent to my dept. to file with the sheriff's office for a warrant to
debtnue.

Target: WHAT! Whats this about, I am his mother?

Tracer:I cannot go into the details with you mam. However, I can tell you that
it is a simple matter that can be cleared up very easily. I just need
to speak to "Joe". How can I reach him?

Target: Oh, I don't know, I don't have no way to reach him he calls me.

Tracer: Do you know a phone number or address?

Target: NO! Like I said he calls me.

Tracer: Well, I can only keep this on my desk for approximately 24 hrs. tops.
If I cannot reach him I'll have no, choose, but to file the
warrant-to-debtnue. At that point the local sheriffs will take over. Do you know of
anyone else, that may be able to get a hold of Joe?

Target: Well, I guess you gotta do what you gotta do! I'm sorry, I ain't got no
phone number or anyway to reach him.

Tracer: How, about, I leave my number with you, and if he happens to come by or
call, you have him to call me? I will hold this on my desk for as long
as possible. I would hate to see this escalate. I'm sure I can clear it
up over the telephone. BUT! I need him to call me ASAP!


Target: Okay, whats the number?

Tracer: 1-800-GET-SKIP. Trapline!!!!
Remember! I need him to call ASAP, or I'll have too process the warranttou. Then
I will not be able to help him clear this up, it will be out of my
hands. You have a nice day.


(When you do get the "Debtor" on the phone you just continue to inform
him, that you need the location of the unit, to have it picked up, to
void out the replevin-warrant-to-debtnue!

If he refuses! Explain again that the next person that contacts him
regarding this matter will be the local sheriff dept. And, that you will
no longer be able to help him after this is filed!!!)

Day in the life

Rushing to be in court for a trial.... which settled, driving, paperwork, client calls, marketing calls, skip tracing, billing invoicing.... its not all like TV, which is what most people getting into this field think it is. this is not a field to jump into if you dont have clients already waiting, this is not a field if you dont have the drive to work. It Pa alone 1/2 of the Pi's that started out 5 years ago or less are gone. Many retired, many just found out this is not profitable. Delaware is worse... its a reinsurance state so work there is hard to come by....

take it from me, love this work, and understand.. this is NOT like cheaters, magnum, rockford or anything else.


check us out at www.harrisinvestigations.net

NY service of process update

In the past 45 days, New York City has adopted two new policies that stand to help residents counter unlawful debt collection practices. But advocates say very little is being done to penalize the debt collectors who for years have broken pre-existing laws.

The majority of the 300,000 New Yorkers sued annually for bad debt have their wages garnished and bank accounts emptied on fraudulent grounds, after their debt collectors don't take suitable steps to notify them they are being sued, said Johnson Tyler, an attorney for South Brooklyn Legal Services who helps low-income people fight illegal debt collection.





The Department of Consumer Affairs has received 2,667 debt collection complaints in the past three years, according to a fact sheet the department displayed at a press conference this week.
In some cases, the Bloomberg administration has helped debtors ensnared by bad collectors get restitution for their losses. In the past three years, DCA restored $4.2 million in wrongful debt, charging back on average $1,559 per violating company, according to the fact sheet.

The New York attorney general's office is seeking restitution for other debtors and DCA has forced some violating companies to pay fines or surrender their licenses. Between January 2008 and March 2010, at least 32 paid a median fine of $300, according to testimony given by Tyler. During that time, at least 11 had their licenses revoked.

Some advocates feel that civil penalties like those may not be enough.

"Sometimes a slap on the hands is not enough to make them reform their practices," Carolyn Coffey, co-author of a 2008 report analyzing debt collector's abuse of the court system. "If they have to pay a fine, sometimes they see that as the cost of doing business, a criminal charge, that's something different."

But few of the business owners who have for years flouted pre-existing laws have ever faced criminal charges and few ever will, advocates say.

Tyler said that he knows of only one person who's ever been convicted on related criminal charges – William Singler, the owner of Long Island-based American Legal Process. Singler pled guilty in January to a charge of "scheme to defraud" for failing to provide proper legal notice to thousands of New Yorkers facing primarily debt-related lawsuits.

The New York Attorney General's office, which prosecuted Sigler, is prosecuting another process server on similar grounds; and the office has already garnered criminal convictions against 10 bad collectors. But a spokesman said criminal charges are not their primary tools of enforcement.
DCA aggressively pursues criminal charges against fraudulent debt collectors, by referring the offending businesses to the district attorney's office, Commissioner Jonathan Mintz said during a press conference held Monday to announce the latest policy change. "It's up to the DA's office after that," Mintz said.

The Manhattan district attorney's office arraigned 52 people on scheme-to-defraud charges in 2009, but a spokesperson for the office said it's unclear how many of those arraigned were debt collectors. Additionally, DCA doesn't track the number of cases it refers to the DA's office.

"I haven't seen any major indictments coming down, or any press conferences," held about it by the district attorney, Coffey said. "I'm guessing that it's below their radar."

One reason so few process severs face criminal charges is that, under the old law, it was too time consuming and complicated to prove a pattern of fraud, advocates say. To prove that a process server consistently failed to serve, an investigator would need to utilize a special computer program or a team of other investigators to analyze thousands of pages of documents, including some documents that he or she couldn't access without a subpoena.

"I'm pretty convinced that you could have the whole freshman class at Pace Law School, Brooklyn Law School and NYU Law School trying to catch process servers in fraud and everyone would come out saying, 'Wow that was a frustrating experience,' " Tyler said.

There is no consensus that bad debt collectors should be criminally charged.

"I don't necessarily see that the best way to go about pursing these cases is in the criminal arena," said Janet Ray Kalson, chair of the civil court committee of the New York City Bar association. "I think it's better in the civil arena because the standard of proof" there is lower.

investigations

The various opinions about private investigation as a career range from romantic to sleazy, crazy to insane, However, the truth is far from fiction. In TV and news media, private investigations are portrayed as a somewhat romantic lifestyle. In the media, private investigation is usually done by men who are either smarter than the police or who are willing to take more risks. However, the truth of the matter is that private investigation today is done by anyone and YES EVEN WOMAN.

This means that private investigation is not for amateurs. The word “private” means that you are on your own. If you find yourself in a tricky situation, no one will be there to back you up. Sometimes, being “private” can be very effective in investigation, but there are times when you just wish that you have someone to watch your back.

Tracking down the owner of a telephone number is common in private investigation work. Surveillance, skiptracing, and service of process are also part of the work.

To get more details go to www.harrisinvestigations.net
or read other portions of this blog.

email headers

http://www.ad2p.net/what-is-an-email-header-trace/

internet dating boom

Online dating websites are booming and daters now have hundreds of match-making and internet dating sites to choose from. In addition to popular websites such as Match.com and eHarmony, millions are connected to social networking sites such as Facebook , Twitter, etc. Experts warn that persons met via the Internet should be verified to minimize the risk for scams.

International background check services are available and recommended for any relationship which is begun over the Internet, and when the person involved is not known personally. Without the assistance of a professional investigator or background check company, it can be nearly impossible to verify if someone is who he or she claims to be when the subject resides in a foreign country. Private investigators recently have reported strong demand in background checks as the risk for scams and fraud increase, and more people are now connecting online.

A dating background check is simply a background check or verification process which involves a subject who was met over the Internet, and where the relationship is romantic in nature. If a relationship is progressing and there is a chance for a serious relationship, industry observers emphasize getting a background check early, since many consumers contact private investigators after the damage is done, and the fraud or scam complete.

Of course most people on the Internet on social networking sites and online dating websites are good people and honest. Criminals have unfortunately taken advantage of this situation, as nearly all such websites don't provide any verification process for their subscribers. As a result, many scammers are now targeting such websites and targeting the consumers online. The criminals pose as Mr. or Ms. Perfect and work to gain the victim's trust and heart - and later their money. Scammers are increasingly sophisticated in their techniques and distinguising the good from the bad is no an easy task, and a professional background is advised.

Major red flags include working overseas, sudden emergencies or illness, requests for money, and so on. Investigators warn however that the combinations are endless. In conclusion, online dating is a risk-reward game, and the risk continues to rise.

Going to Jail for a good cause

Time to go to jail ... for a good cause
Published: Monday, April 12, 2010

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BREAUX


BY TONY Di DOMIZIO



Click to enlarge


HARRIS

Staff Writer

A private investigator and a newspaper editor are among those getting locked up for doing good.

Michele Harris may never know who anonymously nominated her to be "locked up" for a Muscular Dystrophy Association fundraiser April 14, but she can't complain about helping raise money for those who need it.

"I've asked everybody I thought it could have been. I originally thought it was the Chamber of Commerce, and it wasn't my husband and it wasn't my parents. I don't think I'll ever know," said Harris, who co-owns Harris Investigations LLC on Broad Street in Lansdale.

Reporter Executive Editor Nona Breaux was also nominated anonymously to get locked up for MDA.

"I was surprised to be asked to represent The Reporter as a jailbird, but happy to participate. I just wish I was a better fundraiser, because I hate to think that I might be letting the group down," she said.

In the national MDA Lockup, local business and community leaders agree to be "arrested" for having a "big heart."

They get donations from sponsors ahead of time, but, if individuals don't raise the $3,000 goal, they spend the hourlong lockup making calls for donations.

This year's lockup locally will occur at Cravings Cafe in Lansdale. Participants actually get picked up at their workplace and taken to "jail."

"My understanding is as long as you haven't made the quota, you keep making calls and donate," Harris said. "You can eat and mingle for the hour you will be there if made quota."

Donations have been slow, Harris said.

"I have mass-marketed and mass-e-mailed," she said. "I provide a link and I e-mailed all clients and contacts. I probably sent it out to 200 people, and I put it out on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter."

This will be Harris' first time taking part in the lockup, but she has worked phones in the local MDA telethons in the past, including at Channel 6 studios and at the Civic Center.

Breaux is anxious to see what happens April 14 when people come to haul her off to Cravings Cafe.

"Really, the whole program is designed to raise money for Jerry's Kids, and I know the day will be devoted to helping this group to further their efforts into research and other programs," she said.

She said MDA is a really great cause: it puts funds and effort into researching the disease, it provides treatment and support groups and sends youth to camp where they can just be kids.

Breaux is hoping the community will support the cause and bail her out.

"And, of course, I'm still taking donations," she said.

Comments

NY No Fault Insurance System

Suspicious claims and insurance fraud continue to plague New York’s no-fault auto system. In fact, many contend that the problem is only worsening. In a recent press release, the New York Alliance Against Insurance Fraud (NYAAIF) pointed to a 30-percent increase in the number of no-fault fraud reports received by the New York State Insurance Fraud Bureau since 2005.


NYAAIF noted that this costly form of insurance fraud rose nine percent between 2008 and 2009 and accounted for 54 percent of all fraud reports received by the Bureau. In its annual report, which was released this month, the Bureau estimated that suspected no-fault claims totaled 13,433 last year, a noticeable uptick from 12,339 in 2008.


“No-fault fraud is often committed by organized criminal enterprises operating corrupt medical clinics that submit fraudulent claims for treatment that was either not performed or not necessary,” explained Ellen Melchionni, president of NYAAIF, in a press release.


The Bureau agreed, adding that this type of fraud can often include corrupt medical clinics and corrupt attorneys, acting with state accident/solicitation rings to submit fraudulent no-fault and bodily injury claims. It cited statistics from the Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.) that indicated the average no-fault claim in New York was $8,690 in 2009, exceeding the average of $5,615 in late 2004 by 55 percent.


I.I.I. said that New York’s no-fault claims costs are among the highest in the country — 64 percent higher than the U.S. average of $5,289. Overall, the Bureau investigated 1,707 new cases in 2009, which represented a 25-percent leap from the previous year. In addition, 24,920 reports of suspected fraud were submitted in 2009, up more than 8 percent from 2008

Tips on how to hire a private investigator

Ultimately the hiring of a private investigator will be for legal purposes, which means with good information you can carry out your legal work effectively. You private detective must be meticulous, dependable and resourceful.

There have been cases where people have been misled by poorly trained investigators so we want to try and prevent this from occurring as much as possible because it could jeopardise the success of a legal case and it damages the credibility of highly trained and experienced private detectives such as Conflict International.

Step 1

Ask colleagues or friends if they know of a reliable private detective. A referral is the best way to get to the good ones in your area. Knowing someone who has used a private detective before will help give an insight into the experience and course of action. However if the reason for hiring a private detective may involve colleagues or friends it is probably best to not mention anything.

Step 2

Search membership directories of professional associations if you can’t get a referral. Conflict International is a member of The Institute of Professional Investigators and the Association of British Investigators. Our advice is to only work with a private detective company with these memberships.

Furthermore at Conflict International, investigations are conducted and managed within the guidelines of RIPA (The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000) following on from The Human Rights Act 1998. We are also registered with the Data Protection Act and The ICO.

This ensures all investigations are carried out within necessary guidelines; ensuring operations are conducted with knowledge and expertise and in accordance with appropriate protocol.

Step 3

Ask about the detective’s training and education. Legal knowledge from law school can be helpful if you’re hiring for litigation. Journalism school may have taught the detective to be persistent and creative. Business education can help when doing company due diligence.

Step 4

Take note of a private detective’s experience. Many come from a law enforcement background, which is great for legal work but may not help you with investigating a company. Others may have a military background and others may be extremely specialised in surveillance.

At Conflict International our array of experience and training gives us the ability to offer a thorough range of services. We have worked with many lawyers specialising in many areas such as divorce, corporate fraud, and due diligence from which we have learned a great deal and used to improve our ability.

Step 5

Inquire about the private detective’s area of expertise. A background screener isn’t suitable to draw up a balance sheet of your ex-husband’s assets. You’re better off with an investigator who specializes in tracking down hidden accounts and creative financial dealings.

Step 6

Ask about work the private detective contracts out like surveillance and asset searches. This will give you an idea of the type of work the investigation agency carries out, but don’t expect to hear specific details because they should not be disclosed.

Marketing Tips for hte PI

Now more than any other time over the last several years, private investigators and process servers are required to become their own supporters. In good economic times, the professionals in these fields have concentrated on surveillance, skips, and other related areas of operations and those services sold themselves. But with times being lean everywhere, they are having to put on yet another hat in order to not only keep their sales numbers up, but in some cases, even to survive. This seldom used hat, or in some cases brand new hat, is the hat of marketing and advertising.

Advertising can be a part of marketing, but marketing is not exclusively advertising. Marketing is anything that a business does to promote itself. There are literally hundreds of books and articles that have been written by successful entrepreneurs on how to market retail and even service businesses. But investigative and process companies are not only service businesses, but ones that at times, touch on high emotions and the personal lives of their customers. This combination can make marketing difficult. So what can an investigative firm or process service company do to stay viable?

When thinking about advertising and marketing for a detective agency, a lot of things come to mind. Unlike a typical retail business whose target demographic is within a few radius miles, this business has a demographic that is sometimes worldwide. That may amount to a small overall percentage of the year-end total, but every little bit adds up anymore. So as opposed to a local newspaper, flyers, or even radio advertising for a typical business, a detective agency has a lot more avenues that it can consider.

A detective agency needs to really sit down and map out who their clients are or who the clients are that they want to attract. They then need to figure out where these clients are located and just how they might go about connecting with them. Unlike a small retail or local business that is probably boxed-in to being local or maybe regional, this type of business can be local, regional, statewide, nationwide, and even worldwide.

A typical retail or local business may benefit from joining some associations. But, will it bring them any real additional business or sales? Most of the time, the best they can hope for is helpful hints and advice. Such advice or hints may include: how to lay out their floor plan, what a new product might be that is about to come out, or any number of cost cutting methods. But, this is not really the case for a detective agency.

Joining an association or a local chamber of commerce can help a private detective in at least two different ways. It can possibly open up the agency to any advertising or publicity sponsored by that group such as trade magazines, shows, and the like. It may also put the agency right in the middle of a networking bonanza, especially if that investigator is in a smaller area with not much competition. Should another agency who is out of that area need to accomplish some work in the area of you are in, they now have a possible source to get that done so they won’t have to travel a great distance.

Speaking of networking, there is probably a local chapter of a business networking organization in your area. The most popular one of these is based in California with several chapters throughout the United States. They meet once a week and the membership is around $300.00 a year, give or take. You have an optional lunch and then a networking meeting. The main goal is to keep as much money in the group as possible. There is only one type of business in each group also. One lawyer, one detective, one flower shop, etc. They work very hard to spend money back and forth in the group before going outside of the group.

What about different websites that gather together investigators and paper servers and their information? Subscribing to these can open you up to nationwide and worldwide exposure to potential clients. That is not only to target individuals; but law firms, insurance companies and again, the all-important networking aspect, too. Some sites will mention your company under a general heading, while others give you a chance to embellish yourself and your services. The cost varies widely and so does the style of the site and the benefit for you.

The tried-and-true method for your local and regional demographic area is the dependable yellow pages. There is a true benefit to being placed in the phone book. A lot of people still pick it up when they need something local, while checking the internet if it is out of their area. I have only tried this method of advertising once. I didn’t notice a big jump in business, but I don’t remember how and what I listed either.

Local advertising can be accomplished many ways and usually has a lot more flexibility than anything else mentioned. Newsletters, whether created in-house or purchased from a vendor, can accomplish a great deal. While establishing name recognition, they will also build credibility and will educate the reader on just what it is that you can do for them. Most two-sided newsletters can be done in-house for about ten cents apiece. I think the key to these is to hand deliver as many as possible. Mailing is fine also, but you don’t get the chance to walk into another person’s business and see them face-to-face. Idle conversations can sometimes lead to a new case or a new client.

Newspapers, radio, and television can help you with your local and regional markets. Newspapers, while seeming expensive, can get you into a small demographic that is still out there. Write a small article and offer it free to a newspaper and see how many comments you get off of the street if it gets published. They are still relevant, so far. The problem is figuring out what days and where in the paper to put your ad.

Radio and television cover a lot more area and are more widely used. Whether you want to target an established area you already have, offer a new product or service, or you want to expand your name into a new area, these two mediums can be very useful. The nice thing about radio and television is the flexibility. You can produce your spots and find that they are either not working or you may realize a new opportunity that just came to light by some area circumstance. An editing can be done on a portion of the spot without having to redo the whole commercial and problem solved.

There are several little things that an agency can do to help itself, also. Business cards, pens, and other novelty items can help. Have you ever noticed that everyone needs something to write on at one time or another? How about ordering some pads of paper with your business information across the top? The next time you are in the courthouse at the public terminals, drop a pad of 100 pages next to each computer. Three computers? There are 300 little business cards ready to walk out with some of the very people who are in your demographic!

Don’t hesitate to appear at a meeting, local or otherwise, and give a talk on something related to your field if asked. By donating your time and expertise, you have built some goodwill and name recognition. Have you been to a school or some type of training lately? Type up a paragraph about it and submit it to all your local media. Radio, television, and newspapers need fillers for their outlets at different times. And, they will publish these for free as long as they are not blatantly advertising your business.

One of the things that I have been doing the last month or two, is emailing fraud alerts for free to anyone who wants to be notified. The alerts may be local problems, like a rash of burglaries, or they may be a nationwide credit card fraud. Either way, people eat this kind of stuff up and think you are an expert in your field. I sent one out on New Years Eve and got a call from an Indianapolis radio station. They called back later at an agreed upon time and interviewed me live on the air about the alert. Didn’t cost me a dime. The nice thing about these is that you can subtly (or not) promote your business and services that you offer. They are your emails, your creation, and they are free. They can’t complain too much.

Lastly, consider publishing a monthly “Poop” sheet for your county. Take the civil and criminal records from the County Clerk’s office and compile them into a readable format. Add the deeds, mortgages, liens and releases, plus the federal bankruptcy information, and you have a collection of information that is desired by banks, real estate people, leasing companies, and short term lenders. I charge $15.00 a month. This also does something else for you. It puts a lot of people’s names in front of you that you are probably looking for to either serve a paper to or to investigate. This can be a wealth of information for your subscribers and for you at the same time.

Figure out a way to get to the important people in an attorney’s office, the secretaries, by maybe taking some snacks in to them every once in a while. Come up with new ideas that get you recognized by the local attorneys. It is all a production, so be your own star.