One of the best ways a private investigator can assist attorneys is by conducting background checks. Often times they perform these on witnesses, so as to avoid any ‘surprises’ in court. This helps attorneys build a solid case, prepared for all possible circumstances.
Attorneys may also need background information on their clients. Essentially, to make sure they are getting all the information necessary to give the client the best possible chances of success. Performing background checks on the opposition is also an important task. Since this can give attorneys an angle of attack, and reveal vulnerabilities in the opposition’s case.
Overall, a background check’s main purpose entails revealing specific information about an individual or larger organization. For instance, they may reveal a given entity’s criminal record, their educational history, and work records. This is invaluable information when forming many different kinds of cases.
Why performing background checks on witnesses is crucial
In our society, the most common type of background check is the pre-employment check or a work reference check. Employers request these quite regularly before committing to a new employee. Mainly due to the fact that it helps to assess the risk factors of employing this new unknown individual, and it helps confirm that they will perform well in the workplace. However, people make use of a wide variety of background checks.
For example, criminal background checks. These reveal an individual’s criminal records if they have any. In court, this information is crucial, as it can help inform on a culprit’s motives or inform attorneys on the reliability of a given witness.
In fact, one of the predominant reasons pertaining to the importance of background checks is to determine exactly how reliable a given witness is.
What can affect witnesses’ reliability?
No one is perfectly reliable and circumstances can really affect a witness’ perception of certain events. Therefore, it is paramount to know as much about them as possible, that is relevant to the case of course.
A multitude of factors can have an impact on how reliable a witness is. First of all, it’s important to consider how much their testament correlates with the available evidence. If it somehow contradicts solid video or practical evidence, for instance, something quite significant may have gone wrong. Perhaps the witness misremembered something or they weren’t completely truthful.
In such a case, it would then be important to investigate why these don’t correlate. And perhaps find out why a given witness may have the motivation to withhold certain information.
A witness may have been in an intoxicated state. This can have an adverse effect on their perception of reality and color their statement. Another important factor to consider.
Private investigators excel at revealing background information and extracting proper statements from witnesses.
If you find yourself in need of a licensed private investigator and their particular set of skills, please feel free to call us. Or simply click on this link to get in contact with one of our team members.
