Who Are the Clients of a Private Investigator?

Lyonswood Investigations & Forensics has operated nationally for 37 years. We provide investigative services to any person or organisation who has a need for them, regardless of the client’s location or lawful motivation. Approximately two thirds of the work we perform is for the purposes of providing evidence for legal disputes and the other third is simply for the peace of mind of our client.

As can be seen on our services page we provide a broad range of services, the broadest range of services of any investigation firm in Australia in fact. There are useful synergies in providing such a broad range of services – in any investigation one is dealing with the unknown so at the outset of a case you never know what problems you will eventually need to solve.

Roughly 50% of our clients are individuals. Around 20% of the work we perform is for lawyers, 20% is for businesses (large and small) and the remaining 10% of work is for entities like local government councils, government departments and other organisations.

Generally, there is no difference between the type of services we provide to lawyers and those we provide to individuals. The one exception is cheating partner investigations which is a service rarely provided to lawyers. All other services can be used to help resolve a legal dispute or to simply help an individual client answer a question that he or she wants to answer. Businesses generally use all of the same services that law firms do, with the exception of family law investigations and disputed wills.

The truth is that a lot of the services we provide cannot easily be categorised. Much of what we do is simply answering clients’ questions and servicing their needs. Examples of services that we provide that do not fit easily into a service category are things like identifying the occupant of a residence, providing advice about identity fraud, consulting with a client about a unique safety or security issue, getting evidence to prove a breach of a particular council by-law, endeavouring to identify the person responsible for blackmail, harassment or illegal GPS tracking, etc.

We are happy to discuss any issue with any client. If we believe there is a prospect we can help, we will set out the options for the client and they can then decide whether they would like to proceed on the basis of that proposal.

A Note About Services for Lawyers

Nearly every lawyer will have the need for an investigator at some time or other, whether he or she realises it or not. Commercial lawyers, for example, may represent a business against a competitor, a supplier, a client, a contractor, a director or a shareholder. Services such as surveillance and background checks can help our client learn more about the retrospective and prospective behaviour of key personnel against whom litigation is conducted. Computer forensics may enable our client to prove or disprove fraud, acceptance of a contract, breach of confidentiality, breach of director’s duties, breach of fiduciary duty or breach of data protections laws. Handwriting and signature forensics may help our client resolve disputes over whether a contract has been properly formed. Forensic accounting can help clients identify wrongdoing and quantify damages.

Family lawyers may require surveillance to assist in custody disputes and disputes over income and employment. Increasingly, individuals and lawyers are asking for help in cases of illegal monitoring, hacking, harassment and bugging involving former partners or spouses.

Regardless of whether workplace lawyers act for the employer or the employee, they may require the assistance of investigators. Those acting for employers may require, for example, surveillance of wayward employees, interviews with witnesses to a workplace incident, computer forensic services to establish whether there has been a breach of confidential information or handwriting analysis to determine whether anonymous notes can be attributed to a particular employee. Those acting for employees may require interviews with others in the workplace or assistance in identifying anonymous bullies.

Wills and estate lawyers may need signature and handwriting analysis to resolve disputes about testamentary documents and may require surveillance or a background checks to help resolve a family provision claim.

Intellectual property lawyers may have the need to establish whether a trademark is being breached or whether a patent is being infringed. Surveillance or related inquiries may assist in this regard. Computer forensics may reveal whether there has been a breach of confidentiality such as in the case of illegal copying of client lists or trade secrets.

Criminal lawyers may require digital forensics evidence or witness statements to help exculpate their client.

Lawyers in other areas of the law will find that investigators can help solve problems where there is a lack of evidence or where a wrongdoer has not been definitively identified.

Get in touch with a Private Investigator today to discuss your matter.