Entries by peter.shaw

What Defense Attorneys Should Know Before Hiring a Private Investigator

Defense attorneys and private investigators need each other, but the relationship doesn’t always work the way it should. Attorneys who have had bad experiences with PIs — missed deadlines, sloppy documentation, an investigator who couldn’t testify coherently — sometimes write off the resource entirely. That’s a mistake. The problem usually isn’t the concept; it’s a […]

What a Good PI Actually Brings to an Attorney’s Case

Attorneys and private investigators work best when they operate as a team from early in a case — not when the PI gets called in two weeks before trial to fix something that should have been addressed months ago. Understanding what we actually bring to the table helps make that relationship more productive from the […]

Surveillance in Rural Areas: What Changes When You Leave the City

Most surveillance training is designed with suburban and urban environments in mind — lots of foot traffic, cover vehicles blend in, multiple observation positions are available. Rural surveillance operates under a completely different set of rules, and investigators who don’t adjust for it get burned quickly. The biggest challenge is visibility. In a city, a […]

Investigators and the Digital World: What’s Actually Useful

A few years ago, there was a lot of talk about private investigators working in the metaverse — tracking down digital avatars, following people through virtual worlds. It made for interesting headlines. In practice, the metaverse never became the investigative frontier it was hyped to be. What has changed the job dramatically is the broader […]

How a Private Investigator Can Help With Post-Conviction Cases

When someone has been convicted of a crime, most people assume the case is over. The evidence has been heard, the verdict delivered. But convictions are not always the end of the story — and in many cases, they shouldn’t be. Post-conviction work is one of the more serious sides of private investigation. The stakes […]