Armistead Investigators

What Do I Do?

I am often asked, as a legal investigator, the nature of my job. “What do you do? Do you chase people around? Do you peep in their windows, look for their cheating husbands or wives?

It is an an interesting question that invariably leads to an interesting conversation. While, because of the nature of my work I cannot reveals the details of my cases I can discuss “what I do.”

As a legal investigator I conduct investigations on behalf of attorneys and/or their clients. As a matter of course I do not take cases from people who are not represented by counsel. That is the primary difference between a legal investigator and a private investigator. There is a lot of crossover between the two and the distinction is often slight.

What kind of cases do I take?
I accept primarily criminal defense and some personal injury cases. As a member and former National Director of the National Association of Legal Investigators, I am required to certify that the majority of my cases are criminal defense and plaintiff personal injury cases. As a Certified Legal Investigator (CLI) I am required to attend a certain number of conferences and training classes every three years.

That said, there are times when I accept other types of cases, such as corporate internal investigations and difficult locates of persons.

In the criminal defense area, I concentrate on major felonies including death penalty cases. I have investigated death penalty cases across the county since 1991, primarily conducting the fact portion of the case and at times looking for the mitigating factors in the defendant’s life. Over the years I have met and worked with some notorious killers and twice I have had my clients executed. AS an investigator for a defendant facing the death penalty, I am part of a team consisting of attorneys, mitigations specialists, social workers and often forensic psychiatrists.

I also accept assignments on lessor murder cases and other felonies, ranging from sexual assault to burglaries and robberies. Often the focus of the investigation is to gather evidence that the defendant, while maybe having committed a crime, did not commit the crime for what they are charged. I will be honest, it is not often that I encounter a defendant that did nothing or did not use poor judgement to get in a position of being charged, but it happens and one must always be diligent that the system has not charged an actually innocent person.

How do I do it?
The attorney is the client’s advocate and the “captain of the ship.” I am the person who goes out into the field and gather evidence, both good and bad, that allows the attorney to make decisions in plea bargaining situations or trial decisions. Clients often have an unrealistic view of their case and my job is to discover the reality of what happened. Often the evidence I bring the attorney may not be favorable to the case, but it is vital that the attorney be aware of the information. That is why my mind set is not that of an advocate, but that of a gatherer of information. Information wins cases.

I review the discovery in the cases, locate and interview witnesses and report back to the attorney. Often these witnesses are victims, friends and relatives of victims. It takes the skills that I have developed over many years of practice, to locate approach and effectively interview these people, often in less than ideal circumstances.

I also review the physical evidence and photographs, if available, and compare them to the witness statements to see if “things make sense.” Often they don’t. This is a critical exercise often looked over by practitioners. Sometimes something as simple the chain of custody of the evidence is flawed.

How do I get paid?
There are a variety of ways that I get paid. I am paid directly by the lawyer or the client through the lawyer, I am paid by the Federal Courts and in Colorado by the Alternate Defense Counsel. There are times I don’t get paid. I have volunteered my time and expertise on pro bono cases where there was no source of funding. I am a strong believer in providing services to indigent clients.

Personal Injury Cases
In personal injury cases I perform many of the same tasks as in criminal defense cases, primarily by interviewing witnesses and analyzing evidence. I am not an engineer or accident reconstructionist and I leave that part of the investigation to the professionals.

I’ll be honest-in many personal injury cases I am not called until late in the case, when I get a panicked call from an attorney, who after investing thousands of dollars in experts, discovers there are problems with his or her case. The problems vary-a witness or even victim may have disappeared, a new piece of evidence has surfaced or even worse, they have suspicions, buoyed by insurance company’s surveillance tapes, that their client does not suffer from the injuries alleged.

The lesson here is call me early in the case. Spend some money to determine if there IS a case before hiring experts and fronting thousands of dollars in fees. Get witnesses locates and interviewed early and know what they are going to say. It is money well spent and in the end can save the attorney lots of money and heartache.

Summary
What I do is not rocket science. It is merely using the skills that I learned while working in law enforcement, the skills that I have learned in 25 years of private practice and putting them to work for YOUR case. Information is the lifeblood of litigation and I am an expert in gathering information.