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FAMILY LAW & THE PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR

FAMILY LAW & THE PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR. THE BEGINNING I am happy to answer any questions you may have now or after you get home. Please don’t hesitate to contact me anytime. Dustin E. Grate, Lic #632 Spencer Investigations 1325 Airmotive Way, Suite 206 Reno, Nevada 89502

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FAMILY LAW & THE PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR

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  1. FAMILY LAW & THE PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR

  2. THE BEGINNING • I am happy to answer any questions you may have now or after you get home. Please don’t hesitate to contact me anytime. • Dustin E. Grate, Lic #632 • Spencer Investigations • 1325 Airmotive Way, Suite 206 • Reno, Nevada 89502 • Cell: (775) 691-6527 • Office: (775) 786-7766 • dgrate@spencerpinv.com • www.spencerpinv.com

  3. What Defines A Private Investigator NRS 648.012 "Private investigator" defined. "Private investigator" means any person who for any consideration engages in business or accepts employment to furnish, or agrees to make or makes any investigation for the purpose of obtaining, information with reference to: 1. The identity, habits, conduct, business, occupation, honesty, integrity, credibility, knowledge, trustworthiness, efficiency, loyalty, activity, movement, whereabouts, affiliations, associations, transactions, acts, reputation or character of any person; 2. The location, disposition or recovery of lost or stolen property; 3. The cause or responsibility for fires, libels, losses, accidents or damage or injury to persons or to property; 4. Securing evidence to be used before any court, board, officer or investigating committee; or 5. The prevention, detection and removal of surreptitiously installed devices for eavesdropping or observation. (Added to NRS by 1967, 1363; A 1985, 1333)

  4. How can an investigator help you achieve the best results for your clients?

  5. INTRODUCTION • The Family Law Courtroom can be a tough battlefield, and you should have every resource possible on your side when facing your situation head on. • Direct/ Physical Evidence: can make extreme impacts during custody modification hearings, and can influence the outcome of your percentage of child custody. Investigators excel in providing evidence that can literally speak for itself in court. • An investigator can find a wide range of “good evidence” resulting in a positive outcome. The other parent may be an alcoholic, a known drug user, heavy into partying, a reckless driver, associates with others who have criminal records, and the list goes on. Hiring an investigator for surveillance on a child custody matter in its beginning stages can be very beneficial to your client’s case.

  6. BENEFITS TO HIRING OF INVESTIGATOR • The Attorney is not conflicted out and the investigator, who does this • in their regular course of business, can testify as an expert in the area and is able to properly authenticate the information without the inherent bias that comes along with the Client/Spouse testifying about the information. • Much more exists than just the information about what the other spouse tweeted that they had for breakfast last Monday- i.e. GEO Tagging, etc. • “Location” Functions make it possible to see where the other Spouse was physically located at various dates and times- which could be vital if it is the other spouse’s weekend with the children, that spouse is not to leave the state without the consent of your client, yet somehow that spouse checked in two states away at a local diner.

  7. BACKGROUNDS & DATA Nevada = “NON REPORTING STATE” What does Non Reporting mean? Las Vegas = 5 Courts that don’t report “Accurately” Reno Area = 5 Courts that don’t report at all (1) that reports back 4-7 years. Outlying counties – “most” don’t report MOST Nevada courts must be “HAND CHECKED”

  8. DRUG TESTING “Grate” Detections, LLC. Family Law and Drug Testing – WHY? Can your client pass a Drug Test … First Propose Random Drug Testing for Adverse Party Hair or Urine Drug Test?

  9. Video Social NetworkingWho is on Facebook?Who is not on Facebook?Who doesn’t think they are on Facebook?Who can tell me the number one Social search engine?

  10. FAMILY LAW AND SOCIAL NETWORKING • Social networking websites have played an increasingly large role in our everyday lives. Slowly, we have begun to realize it is not wise to pour our souls out over the World Wide Web for family, friends, co- workers, bosses, teachers, students and everyone else to see. And as to be expected, these troves of personal thoughts and feelings are being used in divorce and child custody battles across the country. • Can’t I just look at the other Spouse’s Facebook Page and discover the same information as any investigator? The answer is of course, yes. But a more appropriate phrase that most of us in the room are more familiar with would be “it depends.”

  11. Other Benefits • The Investigator may also be able to educate your clients on how to set their privacy settings on their social media accounts, because destroying such may pose issues down the road. Parties may find themselves getting in trouble for more than just the info found on their pages; they may also get in trouble for info they remove from their pages. When someone reasonably anticipates litigation, that person is under an obligation to preserve (and not destroy) potential evidence.  • The only statutory authority that seems to have any relevance to these disputes is the 1986 Stored Communications Act. When considering that Act was passed in 1986, think about the timeline of electronic communications.  Telnet was born in 1969, FTP (file transfer protocol) was developed in 1971, the first standardized SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol) was developed in 1982, and the internet itself was basically born in 1983. The following things were all released after the Stored Communications Act was passed: • 1991: the World Wide Web (www addresses) 2001: Wikipedia • 1992: html 2002: LinkedIn • 1993: The first blogs 2003: Skype, iTunes,MySpace, etc • 1994: Amazon.com, Yahoo!, and Match.com 2004: Podcasts, World of Warcraft • 1995: Ebay, the first wiki, and Craigslist FaceBook, and Flickr • 1996: Hotmail 2005: YouTube and Google Earth • 1999: Napster and Monster.com 2006: Twitter and WikiLeaks • 2009: GoogleDocs

  12. FACEBOOK SUBPOENAShttp://cryptome.org/isp-spy/facebook-spy.pdf

  13. NEW LAWSNo more “sneak a peek”GPS tracking and installation of GPS monitors by “LEO”Search of digital communications i.e. Cell phones, computers, E-mails, Facebook etc.

  14. FAMILY LAW AND INVESTIGATIVE GPS AND SURVEILLANCE When it comes to investigations, these are no longer “hunches.” Social Networking has become one of the most innovative investigative tools of this generation. • Photo/video documenting of your client’s child custody exchange can be a great place to start on your specific investigation. The investigator will also be capturing the actions of the other parent as well, without their knowledge. This can give the family court a candid view of the other party’s “true” behavior.

  15. The next stage of the surveillance investigation involves applying the surveillance hours to the case.  The objective here is to apply the surveillance hours to the case during those times when our subject is most likely to engage in cheating or infidelity.  • A good investigator will provide the attorney with thorough reports and updates, so much so that the reports alone may uncover facts that while the investigator does not believe them to be vital to the case, they may end up being the determining factor in the case.

  16. THE DANGERS OF ALLOWING YOUR CLIENT TO DO THE INVESTIGATING • Unless you are very familiar with private investigation work, you could be putting yourself, your client, and their friends and family in grave danger if you try to do your own private investigation. The reason for this is that you are unlikely to know the art of surveillance or counter- surveillance and are therefore more likely to blow your cover early in the investigation. This exposure could very well lead to greater danger for you when the subject you are trying to follow realizes your presence, especially if the person has criminal experience.  • It is far more sensible for you to hire the services of a private investigator that has been specially-trained in the art of undercover and surveillance work. In all likelihood, he or she is in a position and has sufficient experience and resources to go undetected throughout the whole investigation process – something that will be quite impossible for you to achieve.

  17. DATA RECOVERYThis has become one of the most amazing tools for investigations and recovery of data, files, video, etc.From Cell phones, computers or even ipods.How does this Data help in Family Law? “E-Blaster”“Cell phone tracking programs”

  18. THE END • I am happy to answer any questions you may have now or after you get home. Please don’t hesitate to contact me anytime. • Dustin E. Grate, Lic #632 • Spencer Investigations • 1325 Airmotive Way, Suite 206 • Reno, Nevada 89502 • Cell: (775) 691-6527 • Office: (775) 786-7766 • dgrate@spencerpinv.com • www.spencerpinv.com

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