S. K. Nelson & Company

Why should my organization hire a legal investigator as our fact finder?

 

Legal investigators are highly trained, skilled and experienced. Accordingly, they often make excellent fact-finders. Many legal investigators have specific expertise or they specialize in certain types of investigations, often making them experts in their own right. By virtue of their work, most legal investigators are experienced at testifying to their findings, thereby making them an excellent choice for fact finding engagements when litigation is pending or anticipated.  Legal investigators may offer a cost effective solution when the need for independent, third-party investigation is necessary.

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Will the investigator who works on my case be individually licensed?

 

All of our investigators are individually licensed. This means they have a minimum of 6,000 hours of verified qualifying experience which permitted them to sit for the California licensing exam. In some cases, however, it may not be necessary to utilize a licensee, particularly if the engagement involves public or proprietary record research as opposed to actual field investigation. In such cases we may be able to fulfill the requirements of the assignment with a skilled, experienced researcher as opposed to a licensed investigator. The choice, of course, is yours.

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What should I expect to pay for investigative services?

 

Obviously, fees and costs for various projects depend upon a number of factors. Fees for our services may run as little as a few dollars for basic desktop research to several-thousand dollars for larger, more complex investigations. Our usual practice is to discuss the proposed engagement with the client, identify the objective and determine what will be required to meet it. We are usually able to provide a reasonable estimate of the cost while setting a working budget. Ultimately, the client is in control of the purse strings which is as it should be.

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Is there any meaning or importance to the acronyms after an investigator's name?

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The investigative industry is no different than others in that there are a variety of credentials available to practitioners. Some of these credentials have few substantive requirements while others are quite demanding. 

 

The Certified Legal Investigator® and Certified Fraud Examiner credentials are among the most substantial, prestigious and difficult to obtain in the realm of private investigation. No less than the Federal Bureau of Investigation has identified the CFE credential as part of the critical skill criteria it looks for in special agent applicants.

 

Potential employers may rest assured that virtually any fact finder who possesses these two credentials is highly trained, experienced and competent. Moreover, each of these credentials requires continuing education to maintain them along with adherence to a rigorous set of professional ethics.