Divorce Attorney Dealings with Private Investigators

There are positives and negatives with hiring a private investigator in a family law case. Perhaps the most important thing that you should do is to understand exactly what you expect to get out of contracting out this service, i.e. what legal remedy you will get by having this help gather evidence for the divorce attorney. It might be wisest, depending on the circumstance, of course, even to consult with your lawyer prior to moving forward. This is to make sure that you actually need such a person in order to have a good chance at getting the relief that you are requesting of a court to be granted.

It is not always the case that a divorce attorney will hire a private investigator in a family law case. The reason for this is that many areas now have a legal mechanism that allows the marriage to be legally ended without assigning fault to any particular party. While there may be, instead, delays associated with this type of law procedure, it may be that there are other things that you can do to resolve other aspects of the case prior to finalizing the legal end of the marriage.

There are at least two other reasons why a divorce attorney does not reflexively hire a private sleuth to dig up facts about the other side. The first is that these people can be enormously expensive. It is possible that you will need to purchase up front approximately forty hours of their services, and their hourly rate is probably comparable to that of a lawyer. The second reason is that, in family law disputes, such as child custody/support or spousal support, most information is fairly well known and accepted within the family. By this, the courts are use to “he said, she said” type of statements. When this discovery you learn that what the two sides are saying are contradicting one another, it can often be possible to have either friends, family or some other third party validate your statements. Or, you could have access to information that, of itself, can help prove the element of the case that you are after so that you feel confident in getting the legal relief that you are seeking.

While there is a possibility of there being an upside to hiring a person capable of verifying or learning facts on your spouse, there are also downsides for the client. Bringing a private investigator on to help a divorce attorney in potential family law litigation can be a risk: you and your clients are trying to document the other party doing, but there is likely little to no guarantee that the investigator will find anything. For the most part, you will be billed regardless of whether they are able to validate any suspicions that you have.

The above material is intended for information purposes only. It is not intended as professional legal advice and should not be construed as such. Will Beaumont practices law in New Orleans, LA, and Metairie, LA.