Litigation Support – White Collar Fraud Investigation – Corporate Fraud Investigation

5 Things a Lawyer Never Wants to Hear from a Private Investigator

For a lawyer to build a strong relationship with a private investigator, there needs to be an honest, open dialogue about things such as chances of success, billing arrangements and availability.

But there are certain things that a lawyer never wants to hear come out of a private investigator’s mouth.

“I guarantee …”

Making any absolute guarantees about anything in the investigative business is simply in poor taste and a poor business practice. As with most things, there are so many variables and factors that are out of an investigator’s control. Too many to even count.

Instead of guarantees, an investigator would be better advised to provide an honest assessment of the case along with reasonable odds of success to allow the lawyer to make a better determination of where he or she should devote time and resources.

Of course, things don’t always go as planned, and it’s important to communicate any developments (good or bad) to avoid any nasty surprises.

“I can get it for you, but I can’t tell you where I got the information.”

For a lawyer, obtaining information that may have come from sources that are not “aboveboard” may not only be useless in a court of law, but it also may open the lawyer up to liability. If acting under the lawyer’s direction an investigator obtained information through illegal means, it may open the lawyer up to potential liability issues (think bank records and telephone records).

One may argue that critical information obtained through illicit means (bribes, illegal sources, etc.) can still be valuable, even if it can’t be used in a court of law. While that may be true, it certainly brings up ethical issues.

“I’m too busy.”

We all lead busy lives. Lawyers and Investigators have to juggle multiple clients, matters and deadlines at the same time. But that’s never an excuse for an investigator to ignore an attorney or to say that you don’t have time for a matter. Nobody ever wants to hear that he or she is not a priority.

A better way to address the situation is to work out a schedule that is beneficial to everyone. And while everyone always needs everything “as soon as possible,” the reality is that the truth is usually far from that.

“I can’t tell you how much this is going to cost.”

Nobody ever wants to hear that something requires an open-ended budget. Imagine having your taxes done by your accountant every year only to find out at the end how much they cost you.

While there are numerous cases where the ultimate cost of something really is not clear, it’s important to establish a baseline for a budget or a range. And it’s critical for both parties to be totally abreast of the billing situation. While nobody likes being billed thousands or tens of thousands of dollars, it’s worse to be surprised about being billed tens of thousands of dollars when you thought it was going to be thousands of dollars.

“I don’t think you have a chance on this.”

I’ve worked on a number of cases over the years in which the law firm that I was working for was involved in a case where it was a massive mountain to climb to ultimately have success on the case. When I mean massive, I mean like Mt. Everest, times two.

Especially when it comes to the white-collar criminal defense area. It’s just the reality of things when the conviction rate is over 95 percent. It’s one thing to think that the case does not have a chance, but it’s another thing to say it.

An investigator’s job is to serve the client as best he or she can, regardless of what the investigator thinks the outcome is going to be. Besides, not being on board with your client is a potential recipe for a disastrous outcome, which helps no one.

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81 Ways Attorneys Can Summon Their Inner Sherlock Holmes

As an attorney, you probably wear many different hats: legal advisor, counselor, psychiatrist, negotiator, accountant and manager. But at one point or another in your legal career, you will need to put on your fedora.

Unlike the days of Sherlock Holmes, you are no longer bound to quick wit and sharp observational skills to gather information. And you don’t need a legendary intuition or trademark instincts either.

In today’s day and age, you can utilize the power of the Internet to gather facts and information, in a fraction of the time it took Mr. Holmes to make his own deduction.

Without further ado, here’s our list of 81 research links for attorneys to summon their inner Sherlock Holmes:

Court Searches / Public Records

Court records and public records can provide valuable insight into the character of a witness, expert witness or even your own client.

1. TLO ($): While this tool is used extensively by law enforcement, financial institutions, government and licensed investigators, attorney’s may not know that they can access this powerful database as well. TLO offers a wide array of asset information, phone numbers, addresses, and it’s surprisingly simple to use and effective.
2. LexisNexis ($): LexisNexis is a staple at nearly every law firm, but aside from its vast catalog of case law, there there is a vast source of public records and other information that you are probably not using.
3. Westlaw ($): Like LexisNexis, Westlaw has an incredibly powerful database of public information and historical periodicals, which you may or may not have access to.
4. LexisNexis CourtLink ($): CourtLink provides docket research and access to the one of largest collections of federal, state, and local court records (not just case law).
5. PACER ($): This is probably not new to you, but Pacer provides civil, criminal and bankruptcy case and docket information from federal appellate, district and bankruptcy courts.
6. BRB Publications, Inc.: BRB’s has more than 3,500 vendors who maintain, search or retrieve public records directly from the court.
7. Search Systems: You may be able to access one of the more than 55,000 links to free public record databases online by type and location.
8. The United States Tax Court: If the IRS has determined that an individual has a tax deficiency, the taxpayer or his / her attorney can dispute the deficiency in US Tax Court.
9. Search Systems Criminal Record Search ($): Provides searches to more than 450 million criminal records in the U.S.
10. Secretaries of State: Find officers, directors and shareholders information from any corporation or LLC.

State Specific Courts

Don’t be confused – none of the court databases cover all of the jurisdictions in the United States. What better way to search for court records than at the source itself?

11. Los Angeles Superior Court ($): Provides an index of defendants in criminal cases as well as searches for Civil court matters in the Los Angeles Superior Court.
12. Connecticut Courts: Access Superior Court records for Connecticut dating back 10 years.
13. Court PC of CT ($): Third-party resource for Connecticut Court records dating back to the 1980s.
14. Virginia Courts: Access the General District and Circuit Court records for Virginia
15. Wisconsin Courts: Access to the Wisconsin Circuit Courts
16. Maryland Courts: Maryland judiciary case search
17. Missouri Courts: Case management system for Missouri state courts
18. Texas Secretary of State ($): Texas corporate records and UCC filings are available to lawyers on the Texas Secretary of State Website.
19. Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County: Access to Civil, Law, Chancery, and Domestic Relations in Cook County, Illinois (Chicago)

Search Engines

While you may think that all search engines are created equal, they aren’t. While Google is the 1,000 pound gorilla, there are a few specialized search engines and new up and comers, that (this may surprise you) provide different results than Google.

20. Google: Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and it is a pretty good place to start any research.
21. Bing: Not every search engine is created equally. Bing provides alternative search results, so be sure to search here.
22. DuckDuckGo: For anonymous searches and unique search results, DuckDuckGo is a great source.
23. Google Search Operators: Because typing a straight search string is not enough.
24. Spokeo: The people search engine organizes whitepages, public records and social media networks all in one place.
25. TinEye: Interested in seeing if an image has been used or published on the Internet?

Financial and Government Regulatory

If you are dealing with any individual or company in the financial industry, here are a few places to start.

26. FINRA Broker Check: If you’re a looking into the background of registered investment professionals, this is where you want to start.
27. Investment Adviser Search: Information about current and certain former Investment Adviser Representatives, Investment Adviser firms registered with the SEC and/or state securities regulators.
28. FINRA Arbitration & Mediation: Current and historical arbitration and mediation awards for FINRA Cases can be searched in this database.
29. North American Securities Administrators Association: Did you know that some historical (and even some current information) about brokers and investment advisers can only be obtained through the state?
30. National Futures Association: Another self-regulatory body for the financial industry that oversees the U.S. Futures Industry.
31. Governmentattic: Provides electronic copies of thousands of interesting Federal Government documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

Political Contributions

Would it be interesting for you to know that the witness you are about to cross-examine or the person sitting across from the deal table is politically connected?

32. Open Secrets: This third-party resource includes an extensive collection of political contributions and lobbyist records dating back to the 1990s.
33. Federal Election Commission: Federal political contribution records directly from the source.
34. Follow The Money: Search state political contribution records to confirm where plaintiffs, defendants, witnesses or even opposing counsels affiliation may be.

New York Specific Links

We are probably a bit bias, but we are based in New York and it just so happens to be the financial capital of the world.

35. New York City Department of Finance – Office of the City Register: Property records for the five boroughs of New York City.
36. New York City Property: Provides up to date tax information for properties in the five boroughs of New York City.
37. New York State – Department of State Division of Corporations, State Records and UCC: Search for New York State business and not-for-profit corporations, limited partnerships, limited liability companies and limited liability partnerships, as well as other miscellaneous businesses.
38. New York State Campaign Financial Disclosure: New York State political contribution records.
39. The New York City Campaign Finance Board: New York City campaign contribution records.
40. The New York Unified Court System (UCS): Access to eCourts, which provides access to information on future court appearances in New York and limited historical cases.
41. New York Inmate Locator: Searches New York State Department of Correction records.
42. New York State Supreme Court and the County Clerk of New York: Online access to County of New York Supreme Court cases.
43. Westchester County Clerk ($): Access to legal records and land records for Westchester County, New York.
44. New York Attorney Search: Verify the license of a New York attorney.
45. New York Professional License Search: Search for professional licenses in the State of New York, like doctors, accountants and architects.
46. New York Department of State, Division of Licensing Services: Search for other professional licenses including notary public, security guard and private investigator.
47. New York Real Estate License Search: Verify a New York real estate license.

State Criminal Record Checks

Criminal records are always a good place to check when you are trying to dig up a little “dirt” on someone.

48. Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Computerized Criminal History (CCH) ($)
49. Connecticut Department of Public Safety ($)
50. Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) Criminal History ($)
51. Georgia Felon Search ($)
52. Hawaii Criminal Justice Data Center ($)
53. Idaho State Police Bureau of Criminal Identification (BCI) ($)
54. Illinois State Police ($)
55. Indiana State Police Limited Criminal History Search ($)
56. Kansas Bureau of Investigation, Criminal History Record Check ($)
57. Kentucky Court of Justice, Administrative Office of the courts ($)
58. Maine Criminal History Record ($)
59. Massachusetts Department of Criminal Justice Information Services (DCJIS), Criminal Offender Record Information (iCori) ($)
60. Michigan State Police Internet Criminal History Access Tool (ICHAT) ($)
61. Missouri Automated Criminal History Site (MACHS) ($)
62. Montana Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation ($)
63. Nebraska State Patrol Criminal Identification Division (CID) ($)
64. New York State Office of Court Administration criminal record search ($)
65. Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation ($)
66. Oregon Open Records ($)
67. South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED), Citizens Access to Criminal Histories (CATCH) ($)
68. Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Open Records Information Services (TORIS) ($)
69. Texas Department of Public Safety Computerized Criminal History System (CCH) ($)
70. Vermont Criminal Information Center Department of Public Safety Division of Criminal Justice Services ($)
71. Washington Access To Criminal History ($)

Miscellaneous

72. Internet Archive: Like a paper library, the Internet Archive is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. An absolutely priceless tool.
73. Domain Tools ($): Interested in getting historical information about the owner of a domain? Domain Tools not only offers information about current domain registrations, they also house an entire database of historical information, so you can track any changes that may occurred.
74. The U.S. Department of Justice: National Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW): National source of sex offender data.
75. Federal Inmate Locator: U.S. Bureau of Prisons inmate locator
76. Guidestar ($): If you are ever in need of information relating to to non-profit organizations, this is a good place to start.
77. Tape Recording Laws: Tape recording laws for all 50 states
78. Ancestry.com ($): There are hordes of genealogical sites out there, but Ancestry.com has the most robust database of historical ancestral records.
79. SpyDialer: SpyDialer lets you find out who is behind a cell phone number by stealthily capturing a voicemail recording.
80. Historical Military Records: Verify historical military records.
81. Active Military Status: Verify active military status with the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) Website.

Guide to Background Investigations - Post Article CTA

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Ways to Use a Private Investigator Every Attorney Should Know

A private investigator can help an attorney leverage your position and find creative and efficient ways to come out ahead of your adversary.

Here are 10 ways that private investigators can help:

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Find Airplane Owners, Aircraft Registration Data and Flight Info

Over the past several months, we have worked on several cases in which we had to track down airplane ownership information, aircraft registration data and flight information.

Below are some steps you can use to find information about the owner of an aircraft as well as the airplane’s registration data and flight information.

Airplane Owner

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) provides an Aircraft Inquiry Database to permit users to search for an aircraft by its registration number, owner, serial number or a number of other parameters. The FAA database provides the name of the registered owner, status, and make and model of the aircraft, as well as a number of other details.

The critical piece of information is the registration number. The registration number is often called the N-Number in the United States, as all aircraft whose registration number begins with the letter “N” are registered in the United States. The N-Number is a unique string of characters that identifies the aircraft and is visibly displayed on the airplane, in similar fashion to a license plate on an automobile.

More often than not, the registered owner of an aircraft is a corporate entity or an aircraft trust. These are used to protect shareholders and owners from potential liability issues. Aircraft trusts allow foreign citizens or entities, who do not otherwise qualify under FAA rules, to acquire valid registrations for aircraft.

Discovering the economic owners of a corporate entity should only require pulling some records from the local secretary of state’s office, but it’s often more complicated than that. Finding the owner of a trust is much more challenging and will typically require some type of court order.

Airplane Registration Data

In order to get additional details related to an airplane, you will need to make a request with the FAA. There are several types of documents available from the FAA: registration applications, bills of sale and airworthiness applications. In addition, the FAA also can provide documents regarding any major repairs to the aircraft as well as any changes or upgrades made to the aircraft, such as a major reconfiguration of the interior of the aircraft.

To make these requests, you need to contact the Aircraft Registration Branch of the FAA. You can make the request by phone or online or, if you happen to be in Oklahoma City, you can view the documents in person.

The FAA will send you the documents on paper or on a compact disc, and delivery takes about 10 days. The cost is $10.

Flight Tracking Information

Knowing the N-Number, you may be able to track the domestic and international flights taken by an aircraft. There are a number of data providers that provide information such as live tracking maps and flight status for commercial airline flights and private, general aviation flights. Among the data that is provided are the dates of departure and arrival, the origin and destination of the flight, and the time in the air.

I have tried a number of these data providers, and I have found the most reliable to be FlightAware. Although FlightAware does not keep track of every single flight, they have an enormous database of flight information, mostly for domestic flights. In addition to what is available on the website, they may have additional information stored offline, which you can contact them about.

As mentioned above, not every flight is tracked. FlightAware does not have a complete history of all flights throughout the world, and they do not track flights that originate and land outside of the United States. Also, owners of the aircraft can choose to have the data blocked so that prying eyes cannot obtain details about the plane. It is common for major corporations to block the data to prevent it from being acquired by competitors or activist investors.

Summary

Ownership information, flight data and registration information for aircraft can be obtained with a few simple steps. In many cases, however, the ultimate owner of the aircraft can be hidden by a series of trusts and corporations, and flight data can be blocked from prying eyes.

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3 New York Private Investigation Firms I Strongly Admire

Even though there are more than 30,000 investigators in the United States, the investigative world is pretty small, and it’s even smaller when you consider the ones that are truly the cream of the crop.

Over the past several years, I have grown to admire a number of New York private investigation firms for the work that they do, image that they have crafted and skill of investigators.

There are firms that are much more vocal (Beau Dietl was doing Arby’s commercials for goodness sake) and much more well known (Kroll and Pinkerton), but here are three New York investigation firms that are the cream of the crop and that I admire the most.

Nardello & Co.

Nardello & Co. was founded in 2003 by Dan Nardello, a former prosecutor. Over the last 10 years, Nardello has gathered some of the best and brightest investigators in the business under one roof, creating one of the most talented group of investigators and forming one of the most preeminent firms in New York and the world.

Over the years, I have become close with the people at Nardello, and know them to be nothing short of first class in every way. They are creative, smart investigators with a core group that is incredibly talented.

Mintz Group

Founded in 1994 by Jim Mintz, Mintz Group has been at the center of several high-profile cases including acting as the lead investigator for a Connecticut House committee that gathered evidence that resulted in the indictment and resignation of Gov. John Rowland in 2004. More recently, Mintz Group served as the lead investigator a Special Investigative Committee formed by the Utah House of Representatives to investigate Attorney General John Swallow.

I have personally known many current and former Mintz Group investigators and have nothing but admiration for the breadth and skill of their investigators.

Their newly designed website, which is one of the most unique investigative websites out there, is worth mention on this list alone.

K2 Intelligence

K2 Intelligence was formed a few years ago by the legendary Jules Kroll along with his son Jeremy Kroll. Jules Kroll founded the world-renowned Kroll Associates and served as lead investigator to recover assets from the likes of Ferdinand Marcos and Saddam Hussein. Kroll transformed the private investigation business from a sleazy side-show to a corporate white collar business, where investigators can now charge lawyer-like rates.

And his newest venture, K2 Intelligence is taking investigations to a whole new level with big data and data analytics.

I’ve never met Jules or Jeremy and have never had the opportunity to work with their firm, but I know many former Kroll people who have nothing but pride and admiration for both of them.

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7 Tools and Recommendations for Social Media Investigations

Harnessing the social web has become an integral part of work for any investigator. So much information is being shared with smartphones and social media that it’s absolutely impossible to ignore. And the amount of data is growing every day.

Social media content was at the forefront of a large-scale investigation we just wrapped up relating to an executive of a public company. In fact, if it weren’t for social media, we wouldn’t have had much of a case. In all, a team of investigators spent more than one hundred hours putting together the pieces from various social media websites that put together a compelling story.

While there is no “magic bullet” or “secret sauce” to conducting these social media investigations, there are some tools that can help with the process.

Reverse Image Search

With Google’s reverse image search, you can scour the Internet for any instances in which a particular photo has been published. It will find the exact matching photo or any similar photo that has been posted on Facebook, Instagram, blogs or anywhere else on the Internet, for that matter.

It’s not perfect, but it’s an incredibly powerful tool if you are trying to find social profiles of individuals or websites in the deep dark web.

How can this help you? Most people don’t bother changing the profile picture for the various social networks they use, often using the same exact photo and posting the exact same pictures.

Over the course of the past several years, I have found people on pornography websites, people using pseudonyms and even a collection of completely fake profiles to try to scam people out of money.

[Tineye is also another reverse image search, but I have found it to be much less successful at finding photographs than Google’s reverse image search.]

Facebook Graph Search

Facebook is the thousand-pound gorilla of social media sites. Luckily for investigators, Facebook has done a really poor job explaining their privacy policies in plain English, leaving heaps of information available to the public, unbeknownst to them.

Last year, Facebook announced Facebook Graph Search, which is effectively a search engine within Facebook to help find information more easily. So, for example, if you need to find someone with the name Lucinda who lived near Canton, Ohio, you would type “People named ‘Lucinda’ who live near Canton, Ohio” in the Facebook search bar. Simple as that.

To find someone, you can use a variety of search terms, such as:

  • Friends of people named “first.name last.name”
  • Photos of people named “first.name last.name”
  • People who have visited “place name”

It’s an incredibly powerful tool, one that has come in quite handy lately. [SMI Aware has a great primer on how to utilize Facebook Graph Search more effectively.]

Bonus tip: Even if the person you are looking for has blocked himself or herself from public view, you may be able to find him or her through family members.

Spokeo

Spokeo has been around the block for a few years. Its main benefit is that it can search 60 of the top social media sites to determine whether a particular email address or person is linked to a social media profile utilizing an email address. This is especially helpful when the person may be using some type of pseudonym.

Spokeo doesn’t always work. In fact, it rarely does. But when it works, it can be an absolute gold mine.

Knowem

This may come as a surprise to you, but not everyone uses his or her real name on the Internet. People use an alter ego, so to speak. While the person you are searching for may go by Tom Jones in real life, he may go by MrLions100 on the Internet. It certainly makes it more difficult to track down these people, but one thing we have going for us is that people are creatures of habit. Once they’ve got a username, they usually stick with it. So if a person is known as MrLions100 on Instagram, there is a good chance that he is known as MrLions100 on many other sites as well.

That’s where Knowem comes in. With Knowem, you can search over 500 popular social networks to see whether that particular name has been taken. If you get a hit with Knowem, you’ve now got a whole new rabbit hole to go down.

Instagram Search

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then Instagram, with more than 20 billion photos, is worth 20 trillion words. With more than 200 million active users, Instagram is a phenomenal (and growing) source for investigators. The trouble is that Instagram was built as a mobile platform, and unlike Facebook, it doesn’t have a very good “desktop” version to search and review with.

That’s where a tool such as Instagram for Chrome can harness the power of searching Instagram on your desktop. We recently conducted an investigation to try to find individuals who were connected to a particular individual and a particular address. Utilizing Instagram for Chrome, we were able search hashtags, GPS tags and user tags in order to develop a full picture of close confidants and groups of individuals who were a regular part of this individual’s entourage.

Sweat

Everyone loves the magic bullet or the secret sauce. But you know what? It’s not always that easy. Sometimes you just need some good old-fashioned time and sweat.

The social web is not structured in a way that lets you click a few buttons and have everything at your fingertips.

If you really want to know what someone has been saying in his or her 42,301 tweets, you are going to have to read them. All of them.

Join the Social Media Party

The only way you are going to become a good social media investigator is to join the party. Know how people interact, get attention, post, like/heart/retweet, friend, etc. If you don’t know how the individual social media sites work, it’s really hard to know what their capabilities are.

In Closing …

There are hundreds of social media sites, each with its own intricacies. And they are changing every day. There really is no magic bullet, but in order to have a better understanding of social media investigations, you really need to know how each of them works.

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Can a Private Investigator Be Hired on a Contingency Fee Basis?

Not everyone has thousands of dollars to spend on legal and investigative fees, which is why we get asked quite often whether private investigators can work on a contingency fee basis.

In fact, it is one of the most common questions we receive when interviewing clients about a new case. Can we conduct an investigation on a contingency basis? Or conduct the investigation for some type of reward?

It’s a reasonable question. Attorneys will frequently work under a contingency fee arrangement. But there are a number of reasons why we do not work on contingency and why you should not hire a private investigator on a contingency fee basis either.

First, hiring a private investigator in the state of New York under a contingency fee arrangement or for a reward is against the law. Diligentia Group is licensed to conduct private investigations by the state of New York, so this is a non-starter.

However, based on our research, New York is one of just a few states that have a specific rule against contingency fees for private investigators.

Aside from the legal implications, there are moral and ethical reasons why you should avoid hiring private investigators on contingency.

4 Reasons You Should Not Hire a Private Investigator on Contingency

Private investigators are hired to uncover facts and evidence.

The unbiased discovery of facts and evidence in the case should be the sole motivation for an investigator to find evidence. If an investigator is getting paid by the amount of evidence presented, false evidence is sure to be “found,” or at the very least, facts that may not be helpful may be “forgotten.” Finding facts and evidence runs completely counter to the motivation driving its discovery in the contingency scenario.

The moral compass of an investigator will be corrupted by a reward or contingency fee.

Let’s be honest, we are all in business to make money. If the job we are hired to do is now predicated on presenting some form of “results,” then some moral or ethical lines may be crossed in an attempt to produce something tangible to earn a paycheck. Greed is a pretty powerful thing.

False or unethically obtained evidence is of no value.

Information obtained from illegal sources is worthless. A private investigator may go to great lengths to present some information when hired on a contingency basis—finding information is the only way to ensure they get paid. If the information from the investigation is falsified or obtained illegally, what good is it? In fact, the investigator’s desperation to produce something tangible has now put you, the client, at risk. And a client may or may not be liable for anything obtained illegally by his or her investigator.

Testimony can be banned if there are questionable fees involved.

If you are contemplating hiring an investigator for a legal matter, chances are that the investigator may be called to testify as an expert witness. Judges don’t take too kindly to expert witnesses receiving fees based on the outcome of the case. Just recently, a federal judge banned testimony from a doctor who testified that a $450,000 surgery was “reasonable and necessary” to correct injuries and who would only be paid for his testimony if the plaintiffs received a favorable outcome in the case. So, if there is any chance of the investigator testifying, it may all be for naught.

Regardless if it is legal in the state that you reside, hiring an investigator on a contingency fee basis is a slippery slope.

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GPS Tracking, The Law and The Future – A Private Investigators Take

Few topics get me fired up as much as GPS tracking does.

For those of you who don’t know what that is, a GPS tracking device allows you to attach a device to a car, or any other type of vehicle, and track the movements of an individual driving it. Effectively, you can stick a device on a car and sit at your computer and track a person’s every move as they use that car.

You probably think that a private investigator would love the idea of GPS tracking.

Not me.

While there are legitimate reasons to use GPS devices, I think they are widely misused, illegally in a lot of cases, including by some fellow private investigators.

Why does this get me so fired up?

First, I think it’s a clear invasion of your privacy. Just imagine some crazy stalker putting a GPS device on your daughter’s vehicle. That vision alone makes me crazy.

But what gets me more fired up is rogue investigators, who somehow feel that they are above the law. People who should know better.

“We can put a device on any car, anytime, anywhere.”

A little over a year ago, I was contacted by a client regarding a situation in Virginia in which a concerned family wanted to place a GPS device in the vehicle of an elderly woman. The woman had Alzheimer’s and they wanted to keep track of her. It’s a totally reasonable request and one that I imagine many families dealing with similar circumstances consider.

I spoke to one local private investigator, who came recommended from another investigator in DC. In part, I wanted to see if he was capable of doing this, but also to learn what the applicable laws were in Virginia. He told me “we can put a device on any car, anytime, anywhere.”

I was flabbergasted.

I am no expert in GPS tracking, but it’s widely understood that you can only put a GPS tracking device if you share ownership of the vehicle. For example, if you are the titled owner of the vehicle.

The truth of the matter is that there is no cut-and-dried answer regarding GPS tracking, especially with non-law enforcement individuals. The law has not kept up with technology.

But any car, anytime, anywhere? This was about a month or two after a landmark 2012 Supreme Court ruling that warrantless GPS tracking was unconstitutional.

So I asked him about the Supreme Court ruling.

His response was: “It said nothing about private investigators. It only had to do with law enforcement. Until there is a specific law that states that private investigators can’t do it, I am doing it.”

I was shocked. So, it’s an unreasonable expectation of privacy for police to do it to catch criminals, but it’s not for a private citizen? And you need a specific law to stop you?

I never used him. And I told the investigator who referred him about my conversation. He’s never used him either.

You can’t contract your way out of the law

In October 2013, another ruling came out. A federal appeals court ruled that police must obtain a warrant prior to using a GPS device to track a vehicle.

One private investigator commented, “As long as my [clients] sign their legal and binding contract, I need not worrie (sic) about the court and their [probable cause] warrant requirement…”

Turns out that they are not the only ones either.

One reporter found that two separate investigators he approached in California expressed no immediate concern about adhering to the state’s GPS tracking law, even though it violates California law.

First off, you can’t contract your way out of the law. I don’t care what “binding contract” your client has signed.

Secondly, it’s true that investigators don’t need probable cause, but does anyone in their right mind not think that this does not constitute a reasonable expectation of privacy?

I even heard about an investigator who exclusively uses GPS devices and never does any type of “normal surveillance,” like staking out a person. Not only is it lazy, unethical, and mostly likely illegal in some (if not all) cases, it’s pretty much the lowest form of investigation I can think of.

In summary

As the law stands right now, there are perfectly legal and legitimate uses of GPS devices. As noted above, it’s a widely accepted practice that you can put a GPS device on a vehicle that you own. Some states, however, have banned the practice of using GPS devices in any situation. I suspect more will follow.

If you are going to use a GPS tracking device, I would strongly consider contacting legal counsel to get an opinion on the matter. Don’t rely on this article, some guy trying to sell you a GPS device, or anyone else, for that matter.

The future of GPS devices

In a few short years, GPS devices have gone from clunky expensive devices to being cheap, easy to use, and even easier to install.

Here is what I expect will eventually happen.

Some person, possibly a private investigator, will attach a GPS device to a vehicle; then, something will happen to that person who was being tracked and a federal law will be drafted that makes it illegal to use GPS trackers in most, if not all, situations.

I’ll give it four years (24 months was added just to get it through Congress).

Any takers on that bet?

Extra Reading:
Supreme Court Rules GPS Tracking Unconstitutional
Private Snoops Follow The GPS Trail, But Is It Legal?

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