Benefits of Using an Investigator
Brian Peebles
There are many reasons to include an investigator as part of your criminal defense strategy. We can review evidence and help identify what exculpatory evidence may have been overlooked or missed. We can visit the crime scene and conduct a thorough investigation, take photos, measurements, analyze angles, gather video evidence and search for witnesses. We can run a background check on prosecution witnesses to search for any character flaws that would prevent them from testifying.
But one of the most important and simplest reasons to use an investigator is to conduct your witness interviews. Many attorneys prefer to conduct their own interviews. While many attorneys are certainly capable of conducting successful interviews, the attorney cannot call himself or herself to testify when the witness gives a different account than what had previously been given during an interview. But the investigator can be called as a witness to rebut the false statement and even provide a recording of the interview.
Not all private investigators are prior or retired law enforcement. In fact, there are many great investigators that never were. But when it comes to criminal defense there are some advantages to hiring an investigator that has worked on the other side.
An investigator with a law enforcement background understands the rules of evidence, chain of custody, probable cause, and the steps typically taken by the police in building their case.
Defense attorneys typically do not have the time to visit the crime scene, gather video evidence that will be gone soon, canvas for additional witnesses and locate the hard-to-find ones. Reviewing hours of security camera footage from a nearby store is not the best use of an attorney’s valuable time. But it’s exactly the type of work that your investigator can do.
All of this needs to start as soon as possible. Promptness is the key to criminal defense investigations. The evidence and witnesses that are available today may not be tomorrow. Every investigator has had to deal with the reality of coming into a case too late and the video has been written over or witnesses don’t recall important details. The constitution guarantees every accused a fair trial. Ensure that your case gets the best chance at a fair trial by having an investigator on your defense team.
While I have focused on criminal defense investigations, all of the same factors and benefits apply to divorce cases, child custody, personal injury and so on. The same investigative principles are applied and the work product that your investigator delivers can make a substantial impact on your case.
One example of an unexpected benefit that can come out during the investigation on a personal injury liability case is coming across evidence that could be damaging to your case. Knowing about those factors in a timely manner and before it comes out at trial will help mitigate the potential damage. In cases of divorce or child custody, surveillance can be a very useful tool to document the specific actions of the other party.
For further consideration, the following White Paper by the MIDC provides useful insight into the importance of utilizing investigators and experts in criminal defense cases.
https://michiganidc.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/White-Paper-3-Experts-and-Investigators.pdf
The following excerpts were taken directly from the white paper:
“The need for substantially increased trial-level investigation in Michigan is demonstrated by the fact that “appellate investigations have led to fact development and exonerations for a significant number of clients, where little or no investigation was done by trial counsel.” There have been multiple reversals of convictions by appellate courts for ineffective assistance based on a failure to investigate even basic claims such as an alibi investigation.”
“One report by the Lansing State Journal found that across three counties, indigent defense attorneys only used outside investigators in two percent of cases during 2015. One district court in south central Michigan has not received a single request for an investigator in twenty years. Another district court denied a motion for an investigator solely because the judge had never seen an investigator appointed in that court before.”
Add an investigator to your team as soon as the case lands on your desk and get the evidence you need to have the advantage at trial. Vantage Point Investigations brings experience and creative problem solving to the age-old practice of investigations. The right vantage point will give an investigator the perspective to see what everyone else has missed and possibly change the trajectory of the case.