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International Due Diligence – Due Diligence Investigations – Hedge Fund Due Diligence

According to recently published report in the The Detroit News, the newly hired coach of the Detroit Lions, Matt Patricia, was arrested for aggravated assault in 1996. Patricia was on spring break in South Padre Island, when Patricia and another fraternity brother “burst” into an upscale hotel room and sexually assaulted a woman. Patricia and his fraternity brother were arrested and later indicted for aggravated sexual assault, but the two men never stood trial and the case was later dismissed.

As an investigator who has conducted thousands of “deep dive” investigations of high-profile individuals, this particular case caught my eye for a number of reasons.

How could the Lions not be aware of this? Was this criminal record readily available in public records or was this information brought to the attention of The Detroit News by a source? What can be done to prevent publicly embarrassing things such as this in the future?

Let’s tackle these questions.

Why weren’t the Lions aware of this?

When initially contacted by The Detroit News to comment on Patricia’s arrest, the team president said, “I don’t know anything about this.”

How is it possible that a multimillion-dollar business, with seemingly unlimited resources, could not know about this? Was the arrest something that was buried so deep that it would be nearly impossible to find? Or was this a failure to do any type of meaningful background check?

The Lions told The Detroit News the arrest “eluded them during a background check that only searched for criminal convictions.”

“We did a complete background check,” said Wood, the Lions’ president. “Our background check was limited to employment matters only and does not disclose any criminal matters that don’t result in a conviction or a plea agreement.”

There are a couple of things going on here that need some additional explanation.

For one, I searched for Patricia’s name in a national criminal record database that many investigators use, and easily found the record. It took me all of two seconds to find that a record existed and another two minutes to pull up some docket information on the Cameron County website.

Matt Patricia Criminal Record

While there are cases in which indiscretions are buried so deep they are nearly impossible to find without some sort of whistleblower or source, this is not one of those cases.

I won’t bore you with the details, but the vast majority of readily available criminal record databases and court records searches are for convictions only. To the layman, that means that criminal record databases typically only include records that resulted in some sort of verdict.

So, for example, if you were arrested but not charged or arrested, or indicted but the case was thrown out, those records will not be part of the criminal court records and cannot be easily identified in a background check. The only way to potentially get that record would be to submit a Freedom of Information Act request to the police department.

In this case, Patricia was not convicted. In a typical situation, this record would not be easily available. But in this case, it was. I don’t have a good explanation for this other than to say that this record happened to be digitized (many records over 20 years old are buried in a court card catalog), and it happened to be in a place where they report non-convictions.

In summary, there are certain states that also provide information on arrests and charges that do not result in a conviction. So, for example, if this were to have happened in New York, it would have been significantly more difficult to find, if not impossible. An investigator would have probably had to file a Freedom of Information Act request in every city that Patricia has ever been known to live in or visit; even then, it might not have been found. In this case, the arrest was across the country.

So how could the Lions not have known about this if they did a “complete background check”?

Technically, the Lions’ “background check” primarily includes criminal convictions, because most records are for conviction only. But even though this case did not result in a conviction, whoever was doing this background check should have been able to catch this arrest since it was in a widely used national criminal database ( “national” criminal records are a bit of a misnomer).

Let’s just forget the fact that the firm the Lions hired to do a background check did a shitty background investigation. Should the firm have known about this?

If you are hiring someone who is going to be publicly scrutinized, you have to ask difficult questions. Or make them fill out some type of questionnaire or form that asks them difficult questions. Anything that may come up that would publicly embarrass the organization. Or could potentially impede his ability to do his work properly.

It may not need to be at the level of the 127-page questionnaire for national security positions, but anything is better than nothing.

What’s particularly interesting about this case is that these types of indiscretions, arrests, etc., may not be found, even in a “complete” background investigation. While it’s pretty clear that the background check should have found something in Patricia’s case, there are other situations where such an event may not come up, since non-conviction records are hard to come by. Also, criminal record searches are filed county-by-county and typically focus on the counties where a person has lived or worked. Makes sense, right?

But in this case, Patricia was arrested in a place he was just visiting. Unless you knew that he spent some time there, you wouldn’t necessarily search in that county.

So were the Lions just following the letter of the law?

The Lions’ president seemed to be alluding to state and federal laws in the article when he said:

“We did a complete background check. Our background check was limited to employment matters only and does not disclose any criminal matters that don’t result in a conviction or a plea agreement.”

Let’s break this down.

So, if they did a “complete background check,” how was this missed? I guess complete means different things to different people. I’ve spent hundreds of hours doing background investigations on some folks, which included one-on-one conversations with past elementary school classmates. If that was “complete,” this hardly qualifies.

Granted, the Lions or other firms may not think it’s necessary to spend tens of thousands of dollars scrutinizing somebody’s background. In many cases, they are probably right. But you have to do enough poking around so something embarrassing like this doesn’t happen.

But it’s the second part of that quote that bothers me, that the background check was “limited to employment matters” and did “not disclose any criminal matters that don’t result in a conviction or a plea agreement.”

So they wouldn’t care if he was robbing banks as long as he could craft a good defensive scheme against Aaron Rodgers?

In fairness, state labor laws (which vary from state to state) and federal labor laws protect employers from making hiring decisions based solely on criminal records. According to the article:

Michigan employers are allowed by law to ask prospective employees about arrests for felonies, but not misdemeanors. In Massachusetts, where Patricia worked for the Patriots from 2004 until earlier this year, state law bars employers from asking about arrests that did not end in a conviction.

You will have to ask someone much smarter than me, but does this really apply to someone like Patricia? They’re hiring someone who is the public face of a very public organization and will be scrutinized to death, but they can’t ask prospective employees about past indiscretions?

I think you can make a very good argument that it doesn’t make sense.

How to prevent this in the future

First, I am a private investigator, not a labor attorney, so do not take this as any sort of legal advice. These suggestions are about high-level public positions or executive-level hires; they do not apply for your average employee hire.

1) Do a “complete” background check.

That does not necessarily mean sending a written request to every police department across the country to find out if there are any criminal arrests. Or flying around the country interviewing everyone that the person has ever met. But it does mean doing comprehensive criminal record research and civil record searches as well as deep public record research and open source research.

2) Develop a background check questionnaire.

Work with your attorney to develop a background check questionnaire. The 127-page National Security Position questionnaire may be a bit of an overkill, but it’s a start. At the very least, you should be asking about basic history, whether or not they have had any criminal past, civil litigation, bankruptcies or arrests.

3) Conduct interviews!

Any type of “complete” background check should include some form of human intelligence, or interviews. Public record searches, open source searches and a review of social media can tell you a lot, but interviews with adversaries, friends or former subordinates might be illuminating.

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Black death? Influenza? There’s a new, much more dangerous plague affecting a small group of Americans. A fast-spreading disease has affected the private investigation industry called SBI, short for Shitty Background Investigation.

To the best of my knowledge this has not affected our firm, but I know it exists because I have seen it with my own eyes.

And it’s frightening.

On February 10, 2018, at zero eight hundred hours, I came across four reports that suffered from SBI. These were provided by a law firm that had been recently retained by a prominent Florida businessman. The Florida businessman, working with another law firm, had retained an investigative firm to conduct a comprehensive, exhaustive public record and open record background investigation on some opponents in a high-stakes legal battle. These people were unaware that they were the subject of an inquiry against them, and overt investigation — such as surveillance and interviews — was out of the question at this point.

The Florida businessman was not expecting to find a serial killer among the ranks of the opponent, but he wanted to know everything he could about them before figuring out how he wanted to proceed. Money was not really an object; there were hundreds of millions of dollars at stake.

Weeks later, the Florida businessman received copies of the background check reports. The reports, ranging from 47 to 96 pages in length, contained dozens of pages of what they would describe as “useless information,” such as the “target’s” phone numbers, neighbors, and addresses.

The Florida businessman immediately knew that something was wrong, but he could not pinpoint the issue. Although he had paid a few thousand dollars for the reports, he wanted more. For example, the reports pointed out dozens of lawsuits, some of which appeared to include some pretty serious issues, but they did not contain an iota of detail.

The reports also pointed out that one of the “targets” had thousands of tweets and Instagram pictures, but not a single word about the content of those tweets or photos. Was he doing bong hits? Or posting explicit photos? Or was he talking about his kids?

Neither the Florida man nor his attorney knew it, but they had hired a firm that had contracted SBI. What they received was a report that lacked depth and not a single piece of analysis. Not a single source document was included. In addition to pages of useless information, there was duplicative and factually incorrect information, and the report also suffered from a case of DTRS (Difficult-to-Read Syndrome).

“Education and awareness are going to be the keys to stopping this dreaded disease from spreading.”

Until the Florida man’s new attorney had contacted us, they did not know what they were looking at, but I was immediately able to diagnose the problem — there was no doubt that the firm had suffered from SBI.

How did these firms contract SBI? Scientists, doctors, and other investigative firms have been baffled by this. But just the fact that people are now openly talking about it is a step in the right direction.

“Education and awareness are going to be the keys to stopping this dreaded disease from spreading,” said one sufferer of SBI, who wanted to remain anonymous.

If you or someone you know is suffering from SBI, or you have received a report from someone who is suffering from SBI, please give us a call.

We can help.

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Investigators often debate the value of online research, and their opinions are varied, ranging from the it’s a “disgusting and unethical practice” to “applause” from a newer generation of investigators who think that any investigation can be solved with a few clicks.

The truth lies somewhere in between, but I am here to tell you that conducting online research is absolutely crucial to being a successful investigator.

Why is online research so valuable?

And what do investigators need to master it?

Accessible

Over the years, I have worked with a number of wealthy clients and investment firms that were interested in getting some information about a person for a possible investment, business partnership or joint venture. In each case, the client’s goal was not necessarily to dig up the proverbial skeleton hiding in the closet; rather, the client was interested in getting an understanding of who the target was and what he or she “was about,” including details about their personal life, business and educational background, financial status, or any significant controversies that they’d been involved with.

In 2017, I can spend a few hours searching the Internet, public records, open sources and social media and get a pretty good read on someone’s personal and professional life. This type of resources barely existed in 2002. Today, there are hundreds of sources that you can utilize. The key, however, is knowing the “go to” sources.

Covert

You can learn a lot about someone if you talk to the right people. It’s hard to dispute the value of making in-person inquiries with friends, families, neighbors and colleagues, former business partners, or local law enforcement.

Surveillance can also be an enormously valuable resource if you are interested in learning about someone’s activities. There is a host of information that can be obtained from “boots on the ground” inquiries that you just can’t obtain by sitting in front of your computer.

The problem, however, is that these overt inquiries may ultimately get back to the target of the investigation, which could cause a whole host of problems. And surveillance operatives can get burned.

There may be cases where your overtness may not really matter, but in many cases, it does. As long as you use some smart business practices in conducting online research – like using a VPN (I use Private Internet Access {affiliate link}) or “friending” the person you are investigating – there is very little chance that you will ever be burned by doing online research.

Cost-efficient

Investigators typically charge by the hour, which means that every moment working on a case gets billed to the client. Travel time, sitting-around-and-waiting time or waiting-for-something-to-happen time all get billed to the client. This can be great for the investigator’s bank account, but is not always so great for the client who has to foot the bill.

The simple reality is that any type of boots-on-the-ground investigation takes time and effort, and the hours spent doing this can add up quickly. A few hours of investigative time trying to get around the metro New York area will barely get me 30 miles and back.

Give me a few hours of online investigative time and I can tell you a lot about a person’s financial wherewithal as well as his or her personal and professional lives. I can tell you whether they have had any recent financial difficulties, whether they have been involved in any significant controversies, whether they have any serious criminal history or whether they have been the subject of multiple lawsuits.

How do you become a master of online research?

Do. The. Work. It is the simplest way of becoming great at something. Practice your craft until you are blue in the face. Repeat.

I’ve also put together a few other tips about bringing your investigative game to the next level.

I am doing a free webinar, September 28th at 2pm EST with Hal Humphreys of PI Education to discuss or open source intelligence.

Or you can take my course, Gathering, Analyzing and Interpreting Open Sources and Public Records, which is available at 50 percent off for the next 48 hours! {Ends Friday, September 29, 2017 at midnight.}

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A North Carolina woman called a few weeks ago. She had paid a local investigator $2,500 to do some surveillance on her ex-husband’s new live-in friend. She had also asked the investigator to conduct a background check on the friend to see if he had any criminal history. After meeting the friend on several occasions, she was concerned that he might have a criminal history. After a few days of surveillance, she was disappointed that it didn’t turn up much of anything.

I tried to explain that surveillance is hit or miss; it’s hard to blame an investigator for not finding the kind of information that the woman was hoping to find. Surveillance is almost always a crapshoot. You have to manage with the cards you’re dealt. The timing may not be right. The person may not be very active or doing the things that you think he or she may be doing. And there seems to be this vast disconnect between how difficult surveillance can really be and what the client expects to obtain from it (hint: it’s not like what you see on TV!).

But the woman was particularly vexed by the so-called background check performed by the investigator. The investigator had submitted a report to the woman that was 50+ pages long and filled with a bunch of information that was difficult to read—data that she knew wasn’t all that accurate and didn’t provide any real analysis by the investigator.

It was what I would describe as a data dump: a bunch of raw data from a number of sources including criminal records, address history, property records and the like that was effectively “dumped” into a report.

When the woman forwarded the report to me, I recognized it immediately. It was a “comprehensive report” from one of the main database providers for investigators that cost less than $20. These reports are extremely valuable to an investigator, but they are a mere starting point for conducting a real background check.

The client was convinced that the ex-husband’s new live-in friend had some criminal issues or a deep dark secret in his past, and the client was not confident that the report provided by the investigator was reliable.

“Comprehensive” background check reports may not be so comprehensive

After seeing the report, I confirmed her suspicions. These types of reports are not comprehensive whatsoever. In order to do a thorough criminal background check, research would need to be completed in each county or state that the person has resided. Specifically, the individual had resided in a number of states for which the comprehensive report did not have any mention of criminal coverage whatsoever, such as Illinois, New York and Connecticut.

In order to conduct criminal background searches in those particular places, separate and specific criminal searches would have to be conducted either at the specific court or in specific databases that cover those areas. For example, a New York criminal record search can only be completed with the New York State Office of Court Administration.

At the end of the day, after conducting a thorough criminal search in each of the necessary counties and states, we were unable to find any criminal history. However, the woman was comforted by the fact that we were able to thoroughly check criminal records in all the places where the ex-husband’s new live-in friend had resided.

I’ve talked about this a number of times on this blog (here, here and here): a “background check” to someone else might be a couple of Google searches or running a name through a $10 database. A thorough background check is much more than that; it gives you the confidence that there are no issues that you need to worry about.

The problem is that most people are unwilling to pay the fees to do an exhaustive search.

If you are willing to accept that a cheap background check is really not all that comprehensive and may not find some critical information, you can save yourself some money by going that route.

But if you want any level of confidence in the findings, you are better off paying for a thorough background check, because not doing so may haunt you in the future.

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“How can I become a private investigator?”

I’ve been asked that question literally hundreds of time over the past several years. The truth is that I never had a great answer. Actually, I take that back. I had a decent idea, but it was nothing that I could boil down into a few sentences.

So I enlisted the help of a group of investigators who collectively have hundreds of years of investigative experience.

Together, we came up with a list of skills, traits and tips on how to become a private investigator.

Experience Required?

One thing to keep in mind is that most states require investigative experience in order for a person to obtain a license as a private investigator. Legally, if you are receiving money for “investigative” work, even if it’s only internet research, you need to be licensed in most states. Many states require a minimum of two years’ experience; some states require more than five years’ experience.

That means that you need to work under another investigator’s license in order to gain the required experience before you get your own license. Or that experience can come from related fields, such as conducting investigations for some government agency or the military, and in most cases, prior law enforcement experience counts as your investigative experience.

Learn From Others

Collectively, we all agreed that it is critical that you learn from other investigators. This is not a business that you want to be self-taught. There are a number of states that have absolutely no requirements for investigative experience, and a few states do not have any licensing requirements whatsoever. When you are self-taught, “you don’t know what you don’t know,” one investigator commented.

It’s so true.

Your experience does not even have to come from another private investigator. This experience can come from working at an insurance company, in asset protection within a corporation, as an investigator for district attorneys/public defenders or even as an investigative journalist. It doesn’t necessarily have to be an investigative firm that provides the experience.

Learning from others will provide you with a good overall skill set. One of the things that you will quickly find is that private investigators require a lot of skills, so even though it may not be readily apparent that certain skills will be useful, they may come in handy someday.

Learn to Write

Perhaps the most critical skill to develop is not the power of observation, critical thinking or even interview skills; it’s writing. Writing is a fundamental skill, and being able to write concisely, clearly and thoughtfully is absolutely essential.

Of all of the investigators I have met over the years who have easily and successfully transitioned into being a private investigator are investigative journalists. That is no accident. In fact, several members in the group said that if they had to start over again, they would work as an investigative journalist first, which would give them the writing, interviewing, research skills and tenacity that are required of the job.

I can teach people how to conduct research, interviews and send a FOIA request; teaching someone how to write is next to impossible.

“Major in whatever the hell you want, but learn to write, succinctly and well,” one investigator told me.

I couldn’t agree more.

You Don’t Need Law Enforcement Experience

Although there are a lot of former law enforcement officers who transition into the private investigation business (51 percent of private investigators have former law enforcement experience, according to PInow.com), it is absolutely not a requirement. I’ve written about this before, but I have seen former law enforcement officers have a challenging time transitioning to the private sector for a variety of reasons.

You will absolutely learn skills that can be carried over into private practice, and you will make some great contacts along the way that can be invaluable, but depending on the type of work that you do, coming from law enforcement can actually be a hindrance.

Patience

Patience is kind of a lost art in today’s I-want-it-now world of Uber, Amazon, Netflix, Twitter and the 24-hour news cycle. Despite what you may think about the investigative business, it’s rarely glamorous and often requires grinding through difficult and sometimes tedious times. One investigator who has been in the business more than 20 years illustrated this point perfectly.

I was at the Library of Congress earlier this week looking up an article from “TV Guide” from the 1980s to be used in an upcoming case where I’m looking at trying to debunk an expert witness. I realized that I’ve been threading microfilm and trying to make copies from a big unwieldy box since at least the 1970s at my local public library, which I was doing for fun, never realizing it would later be my career. I think having that quality of enjoying the hunt, and being tenacious to scroll through documents [are] still the most important [skills]. I fear the generation of people coming into our business only think to “Google” something, and need to learn that the best answers usually come from exhibits in court filings, archived newspaper stories, which aren’t online, decades-old crisscross directories, etc.

Learn to Listen

You are born with two ears and one mouth for a good reason. Listening has quickly become a lost art, but if you know the difference between listening and hearing, you are on the right path. Effective listening is one of the most important skills a budding investigator can have.

Whom should you work for?

Several of the investigators I reached out to suggested that you join a large investigative firm so that you can navigate all the facets of the trade, such as interviewing, surveillance, databases, social media research, forensics, etc. In part, so that you can see what interests you most and figure out which field best fits your skill set.

It’s also important to learn about the ins and outs of the business, such as the type of work that is typically requested, billable rates and working with subcontractors.

“Nosy” and “Curious”

At a cocktail party, inevitably someone will tell me that they would be a good private investigator because they are nosy or curious. My typical response would include the ancient proverb “Curiosity killed the cat.”

The truth is, that’s probably the last person I want as a private investigator. If you’re a “research adrenaline junkie” or “curious by nature” or “a problem solver,” then there are a bunch of professions where that’ll be helpful.

The main difference between a private investigator and a curious person, journalist or law enforcement officer is that you are researching something only because someone is paying you to do so. You have to have laserlike focus on the task at hand for what the client wants for the budget they are willing to pay. Anything less, and you will fail as a private investigator.

Curious and nosy people have this persistent desire to know. While this can be a great trait, it typically doesn’t mix well with budgets and deadlines.

Get Some Basic Skills

Whether that’s taking some courses at a local college, teaching yourself how to mine social media, practicing interviewing and writing by starting a blog or taking an online course, the more skills that you have going into the business, the more attractive you look as a candidate.

Acquire a Skill

Getting an internship or a job in this business is not easy. It’s not a high-growth business that is hiring all the time. A couple of the larger firms I know have some good internship opportunities, but they are few and far between. You can easily separate yourself from others by having a skill. If you can speak a language, have a strong financial background or know how to code, you can definitely separate yourself from others.

Some Skills Can’t Be Taught

Tenacity and the willingness to put in lots of hours; those are two things that can’t be taught, both of which are absolutely necessary in this business. You can be taught a lot of things, but if you give up easily and are not willing to put in some long hours, including some overnights, this might not be the right job for you.

“The good investigators use investigative resources to help them solve problems and find answers; the so-so ones use them because it’s their job,” one investigator said.  

It’s Rarely Glamorous

You will notice that some of the things we discussed here – patience, long hours, tenacity, listening, writing – don’t include anything about Ferraris, car chases, cheating spouses or anything remotely close to what you may have learned from Magnum PI, Sherlock Holmes, Columbo or the esteemed members of Scooby-Doo’s Bloodhound Gang.

If you are an adrenaline junky looking for a bit of glamour, I’m afraid that this may be the wrong business.

Is private investigator the right job for you?

Who knows? That’s about as honest an answer as you can get.

There are no crystal balls. If you don’t have some of the personality traits or skills we have discussed here, maybe this is not the profession for you. Maybe you can learn some of these traits.

But here are some indicators that you might be cut out to be a private investigator:

  • You ask questions, twice.
  • You enjoy listening to others.
  • You look at boxes of documents and get excited.
  • You love the hunt.
  • You are willing to work the midnight oil to find that nugget
  • You love taking notes, and when necessary, you take notes on a cocktail napkin or an airplane vomit bag.
  • You understand the need for privacy laws and have a healthy respect for the law.
  • You know that no question is too stupid.
  • You believe in intuition.
  • You understand that there are at least three ways to catch a fox. If at first you don’t succeed, knock and knock again.

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In early December 2015, we were contacted by Antonio, a businessman from California. He had been in an online relationship with Andrea for over a year. Andrea lived halfway across the country and things had been going well, but Antonio had become suspicious of her recent activities.

They met through an online dating site. Over the year, they had exchanged messages and photos and flirted with each other. But nothing more. When they first met, Antonio was married; Andrea was single and had just gotten out of a bad relationship. They had plans to meet each other on a number of occasions, but for one reason or another, the plans always got cancelled.

Andrea, who was a nurse, at some point had asked for a few hundred dollars to pay her cable bill. She had gotten behind on her bills and Antonio was happy to help.

Antonio ultimately divorced his wife and decided that he wanted to finally meet Andrea in person. He planned to meet her in Boston one weekend in late November. Andrea cancelled at the last minute. While Antonio dismissed the previous cancellations, this one bothered him. He had already taken the flight and was in his hotel in Boston.

He decided to do something about it. He rented a car and drove to the suburbs and went to the address where she said she was building her new house.

But there was no house in sight.

Antonio’s growing suspicions reached a boiling point.

When Antonio contacted us, he wanted answers. He had suspicions that Andrea wasn’t a real person. But she always seemed to have an answer for every question he had. So he asked us to look into it and to determine whether Andrea was in fact a real person.

Hearing this for the first time, I was almost certain that Antonio had been lured into a relationship by someone who was using a fictional online persona (catfished). The fact that Andrea would constantly cancel plans and the fact that they have spoken on dozens of occasions, but never with live video, made me really suspicious.

He provided me with an address where she lived, her date of birth and even the type of car that she had. He also supplied a few pictures.

I explained to Antonio that there were two possible scenarios: Andrea was either a complete figment of someone’s imagination or (the more likely scenario) Andrea was a real person, just not exactly who he had imagined. The best con artists can completely make up a persona and keep all of their lies straight but, in most situations, you will find that these people sprinkle in details of truth with their fiction.

We quickly found Andrea. She was, in fact, a real person. She lived where she said she lived and was born when she said she was born.

But her story fell apart from there.

She did work at a nursing home for a short period of time, but she wasn’t a licensed nurse (as she had described).

She lived in the house that she said she lived in, but the car was not hers. She didn’t own a car. In fact, she was still living with that boyfriend whom she had supposedly broken up with.

And the icing on the cake was her Facebook profile, which we found despite that fact that it was under a fake name. She was careful enough not to post any photos of herself, but her family members weren’t. After identifying a number of her siblings and her mother on Facebook, we found some photos of Andrea.

You guessed it. She was not the muscular, short, young Hispanic woman in the pictures she had sent to Antonio — she was a tall, heavy-set Caucasian.

After looking through Andrea’s Facebook friends, it turns out that Andrea had taken the photos she sent Antonio from one of her high school friend’s pages.

Armed with this information, Antonio confronted Andrea, who naturally denied everything until he threatened to go the police.

Hopefully, Antonio (and Andrea) have learned their lessons.

(Names and details have been changed to protect identities.)

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A few weeks ago, the Telegraph published fascinating stories about how the “naive heirs” of the super rich were putting the family assets at risk by flaunting their lavish lifestyles on social media. It reported that social media posts were being used as evidence in 75 percent of litigation cases and, in one particular case in which a man claimed to own nothing, one of his children posted pictures of the family’s £12 million super-yacht in the Bahamas.

This is not all that uncommon. There is even a blog dedicated to the “Rich Kids of Instagram.”

But while the “rich kids” are flaunting their over-the-top lifestyles, there is a growing trend for people (especially in the older generation) to be a bit more careful about what they say and do on social media. As more people have been concerned about privacy issues, there has certainly been a trend for people to limit the public access to everything in their stream, to set their profiles to private or to simply post under a fake name.

Especially among the wealthy, who have been targeted for burglary using social media. Except for guys like 50 Cent, who had to explain to the court how he had posed with stacks of $100 bills that spelled out the word “broke” after filing for bankruptcy.

Nevertheless, what the Telegraph story highlights is something that professional snoopers have known for a long time – the Achilles’ heel of snooping on social media is “naive” family members and friends.

You see, while certain types of people have a complete aversion to social media, more often than not, those people around them do not. Nine times out of 10, you will be on social media whether you realize it or not.

We just wrapped up a large background investigation project on about 20 individuals that related to a complex legal matter, and about half of them had absolutely zero social media accounts. But we found photos and other details of their private lives on every single one of them through the Facebook and Instagram accounts held by their children, wives and friends.

So while you (or the person you are investigating) will do everything you can to protect your privacy when it comes to social media, chances are your information is out there somewhere.

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In this post, we are going to discuss how to search court records, specifically relating to civil lawsuits.

{If you are interested in reading more about how to conduct a criminal background check (like an expert), check out our previous post.}

I consider court records to be one of the most important and underutilized resources in an investigator’s arsenal, because they are open-source (anyone can access them), they are based on factual data, they can provide an intimate picture of an individual or business and there are millions of data points (millions of cases are filed each year).

As recent as 15 years ago, the only way to search court records was by physically going to each court and searching the records either on a computer terminal or in bound books. Since the late 1990s, however, records have been computerized and with more increasing regularity, the individual courts are putting the records on the Internet.

This is not true for every court, however. Most courts in the United States still cannot be publicly accessed on the Internet, and in some cases still require a trip down to the court (yes, this is 2015).

This post is meant to give you a broad overview of how to do court research, but there are hundreds of exceptions here. There are more than 4,000 state, local and federal courts in the United States and it’s not possible to cover everything.

Before we get into the meat of the post, let’s discuss some general terms about what a civil lawsuit is, types of cases that are filed and some general terminology.

What is a Civil Lawsuit?

In general terms, a civil lawsuit is a case in which one individual or business files a dispute against another individual or business, seeking some type of damages or compensation.

Some common types of civil lawsuits are marital matters, personal injuries, contract disputes, discrimination, copyright infringement, medical malpractice, and evictions or unpaid rent, all of which would be handled by the civil courts.

There are a number of specialized courts as well, such as the U.S. Tax Court, the U.S. Court of Claims and the U.S. Court of International Trade, which are separate entities and have their own rules regarding access.

As noted above, finding criminal cases, although similar, is a different ball of wax altogether.

State Courts vs. Federal Courts

There are two different kinds of courts in the United States – state courts and federal courts. In the most basic terms, federal courts handle cases involving violation of federal laws (e.g., discrimination, copyright), the Constitution, cases involving the United States as a party or cases involving citizens of different states.

State courts involve cases involving state or local laws. The most common cases are marital cases, personal injury cases or contract disputes.

For comparison purposes, about 271,000 federal court cases are filed per year compared with more than 17,000,000 cases filed in state courts per year.

Jurisdiction

For the most part, civil court cases are filed in the county or jurisdiction in which a person lives, works or conducts business (in the case of corporations).

It’s critical to understand which jurisdictions (specifically the counties) are relevant before you get started. If a person lived and worked in Westchester County, New York, you need to make sure that you are searching state-level lawsuits in Westchester and federal level lawsuits in New York.

While most cases are filed in the county or jurisdiction in which the plaintiff lived, worked or conducted business, there are always exceptions. For example, a person may be involved in a vehicle accident in a neighboring county from where they have lived their whole life. In large suburban areas like New York City, many people live outside of the city in which they work.

In some cases, the cases may be filed in the state in which a business was incorporated. For example, many large corporations are incorporated in tax-friendly states such as Delaware or Nevada; even if they do not conduct business in that particular state, a case may still be filed there.

Overview of State/County/Local Courts

Most state-level courts are split up by county. There is usually one “main” court in the county, (typically called the Supreme, District, Circuit or Superior Court) with various smaller courts within the county. In most instances, this main court will handle the more significant cases, such as cases involving more than $5,000.

If you are interested in being very thorough, you will need to make sure that you cover both the main court and the smaller outlying courts. In most cases, the smaller courts handle less significant matters, such as small claims and eviction cases, which may not be all that relevant to what you are doing.

In many states, there are separate courts that handle matters such as family issues (e.g., divorce and child custody), and other courts that handle probate matters such as wills and estates. In most cases, this requires a separate search because these courts are usually not directly wired to each other.

In summary, each county typically has one main court that handles the most significant cases and many smaller courts for less significant matters in terms of damages or other matters altogether.

Overview of Federal Courts

Federal courts are a little less complicated. In total there are 94 U.S. district courts. Some states, such as Alaska, are composed of a single judicial district, while others, such as California, are composed of multiple judicial districts.

There are also appeals courts, where an unsuccessful party can file an appeal to have the decision reviewed, but for the purposes of this post, we are discussing only originating cases and not cases on appeal.

How to search court records

So now that you have a brief overview of the state and federal court systems, how do you search court records?

Before conducting the search, there are few things you should keep in mind.

There is no central database

There is no central database for searching all of the courts. Despite the “millions” of records that you might find on some online site, I can assure you that it is not complete or comprehensive. (The one exception, as explained in more detail below, is that Pacer does a very good job of covering federal-level courts.)

Databases can be quirky

Searching databases can be quirky, so make sure you follow the directions. For example, in some instances the full name and correct spelling is mandatory, while other databases will return names with similar spellings. Also, names may be misspelled or entered incorrectly, so be wary of that.

Lastly, many databases can be searched by plaintiff (the party filing the lawsuit) or defendant (the party who is being sued); make sure that you search both.

Official repositories are always best

If you are deciding which database to use, the “official repository” is always the best. Official repositories include state and federal government repositories where you can access information directly through the source — for example, Pacer, the Cook County Circuit Court or the Palm Beach County Court. The benefit, of course, is that you are using an official repository run by the state or federal government; however, these repositories are only as good as the information they contain.

Use multiple sources

It is always recommended that you use multiple sources for searching records, even if you are using the “official” repository. After using one database, always try another — you might be surprised when you find different results.

Numerous times throughout my career, I have found records in one database and not another. Even “official” county-sanctioned databases have their issues.

Civil cases don’t have Identifying Information

Unlike criminal cases, which typically have some type of identifying information such as a date of birth, civil cases do not. So if you find a case filed against John Smith, it could be one of hundreds of John Smiths. While in some cases you may be able to determine within the court documents that the case is related to a specific person, the truth is that you may never know whether the case is related to that specific person.

That’s a whole other blog post though…

Sources to Find State-Level Civil Cases

Online

For many counties, you can access the court records through the web. More often than not, those court records only cover the highest court in the county and not the smaller courts, but each county is different. Also, the depth of the information varies. Connecticut’s case look-up only displays records for 10 years, but you can get records at the local court beyond that. (Insider Tip: Court PC of Connecticut has been collecting records since the 1980s and is a fantastic source for historical records in Connecticut.)

Local retriever

There are thousands of local retrievers throughout the country that can search the local courts. They are a great source of information, too, as they know the ins and outs of the local court system. You can find a local retriever through the Public Record Retriever Network.

Third-party database aggregators

There are a number of third-party commercial database aggregators that have been collecting civil court case information for years such as Lexis Nexis, Westlaw and Courtlink (which is owned by Lexis Nexis).

There are other third-party databases that collect information from a particular jurisdiction like Court PC of CT, which collects Connecticut court records, and CourtTrax, which collects records from Washington and a number of other western states.

Call the court

As a last resort, you can call the court (yes, using a telephone). In many small counties, you can actually call the court and they will do a search for you while you are on the phone. Or in some instances, they will ask you to submit a request by snail mail (yes, using the post office). Just a few weeks back, I spoke to a clerk in Hall County, Utah, who was able to look up a case for me over the phone and email me the records.

Please don’t try calling New York County Supreme Court; they will probably laugh in your face. Or if you do call, don’t mention my name! ;-)

Sources to Find Federal-Level Civil Cases

Pacer

PACER is a national locator index for federal district courts. The site is maintained by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts and is updated daily. You can search by party name, case number or nature of suit. You can search the entire database (nationwide) or you can search by a specific region or state.

Third-party database

Just like the state-level lawsuits, there are third-party commercial databases that also collect information on federal court cases, such as Lexis Nexis, Westlaw and Courtlink (which is owned by Lexis Nexis).

Why is this recommended?

Over the years, I have found many instances of cases that showed up in one database and not in another for no explicable reason whatsoever.

Summary

I hope you have found this a useful guide on how to search court records. With over 17 million cases filed per year, that’s a lot of information to go through, but I hope that you now have a better sense as to how to find them.

Of course, if you have any questions or feedback, feel free to leave a comment below.

References:

The Differences between Federal, State, and Local Laws
Federal vs. State Courts – Key Differences
Court Statistics Project
USCourts.gov
National Center for State Courts

Guide to Hiring a Private Investigator

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