There are some jobs in this world which appear very mysterious and leaves us begging the question as to what they actually do. Today, in line with this, we are going to look int the world of private investigators, to find out if their job is as sneaky and clandestine as it suggests. For many years in film and television, private investigators have always had the air of someone sneaking around the shadows trying to uncover truths which the police cannot. To find out more we spoke to Adam Quirk FBI man and former private investigator, to find out exactly what these men and women do, spoiler alert, it isn’t as exciting as you may think.
Assisting Attorneys
Many attorneys will call upon a private investigator to help them out with a wide range of cases. This could be civil cases were the PI will work on either side of the case, or criminal cases where the PI will only work with the defense. Within this they usually are involved in locating participants of the proceedings, document crime scenes, and occasionally interview witnesses. PIs must be impartial and they can be called upon by attorneys to help them out with a wide range of details for the case that they are working on.
Child Custody
In child custody cases a PI will spend time looking into both family members to offer their insights as to who is caring for the children, and how well they are living up to their duties as a parent. Often the PI will have been hired by one parent to ensure that the other parent is looking after their child well, and putting their best interests first.
Insurance Fraud
There is a great amount of insurance fraud which goes on and PIs are essentially to catching those who are lying in order to get a pay out. The man who claims to be ‘disabled’ after an accident is usually sniffed out by a PI who finds out the truth and then passes their findings on to the insurance company.
Counterfeiting
In some cases a PI will act as a buyer for someone who they know is selling counterfeit merchandise, and they can then use this experience and document it, to ensue that the criminal faces justice.
Serving
Many people who need to be served court papers that avoid them are often served these papers in the end by a PI. Private investigators have more time and a little more leeway than court officials so they often pick up the burden of serving the individual who is trying to escape a court hearing or an accusation. How they do this is something quite unknown but as Adam alludes to, PIs always have their ways of getting the job done.
There are other small projects which PIs will take on but this is the majority of their work here.
