Probate / Estate Attorney Investigation Services

Do you suspect a caretaker, a family member or a guardian of fraud or exploitation? Do you need interviews from friends or business associates to document the mental capacity of a client? Probate and guardianship cases require sensitivity and strong interviewing skills to uncover signs of physical or mental deterioration. It takes a deft touch to maneuver witnesses through difficult interviews, and determination to obtain medical documentation from health care facilities.

Elder and Guardianship abuse/exploitation:  As more of us become responsible for our aging parents while we continue our careers, we rely more frequently on outsiders to care for our loved ones. Who are these caretakers? Sometimes, predators can bilk thousands of dollars in cash or “gifts” from a sympathetic or slightly senile patient. If your client is concerned that a parent is being taken advantage of, a background check needs to be conducted. Interviews of associates and former patients and research and analysis of the caretaker’s employment history can help determine if there might be reason for concern.

We can help you by effectively providing the following Probate / Estate Attorney Investigation Services:

• Interviews and research
• Background investigations
• Obtaining medical records
• Reviewing bank and credit card statements for fraud/embezzlement

Interviews and research: Probate/estate and guardianship cases usually involve disputes between family members and close friends. It takes a deft touch and a skilled interviewer to obtain information from sources who may be emotionally invested by relationships in the outcome of the litigation. Our investigators have acquired the skills and developed the personal touch necessary to set witnesses at ease during an interview. Our goal is to develop information without alienating the witness or causing further disruption to stressed relationships.

Information can also be developed by our talented researchers, who have years of experience in “data mining” through a variety of proprietary and “open source” databases, government repositories, courthouses and social media platforms.

Benefits

• Uncover information not previously known or disclosed.
• Develop a “theme” for litigation based on witness testimony.

Background investigations: What do you know about the person or persons caring for an elderly patient? Often caretakers are hired by family members based on recommendations from friends, or through a relationship, or even from a personal advertisement. Yet the newspapers regularly feature stories of fraud, embezzlement and abuse by caretakers who have a history of arrests, lawsuits and judgments, and domestic violence.
At Complete Legal Investigations, we know where to look for signs of trouble. We review court filings, canvass law enforcement agencies and review social media sites to develop a profile of a potential or current caretaker. If you suspect fraud or abuse, you need to know about the person caring for your client.

Benefits

• Discover whether an individual has an arrest history (not available in all states).
• Determine the outcome of any arrests.
• Uncover possible financial problems that could provide a motive for theft or embezzlement.

Obtaining medical records: With a power of attorney from your client, we can gather records of treatment from hospitals, physicians, rehabilitation facilities and treatment centers. Elderly and disabled clients often have several, or even dozens of health practitioners treating them. Each practitioner and facility has records of treatment. Review of these records often produces other practitioners who consulted or treated the client.

Gathering all these records can be a daunting and time-consuming task that requires diligence and thoroughness. At Complete Legal Investigations, Inc., our researchers have the experience and the patience to gather and study medical treatment records from all over the country, and to follow through with leads from those records.

Benefits

• Obtain medical documentation for a debilitating condition.
• Identify medical providers who can offer expert testimony.
• Uncover conditions or treatments which might affect your litigation.

Reviewing bank and credit card statements for fraud/embezzlement: “Follow the money” is an old and trusted adage for fraud investigators. Examining credit card statements, cash withdrawals, checks, signatures and endorsements is critical to determining possible fraud or embezzlement. Suspects are often not careful or skilled in forging signatures. Often they will endorse checks to cash in their own names or deposit the check into a friend’s or collaborator’s account. Credit card purchases at locations outside the client’s geographic area are suspect. Dates and locations of transactions should also be examined; are checks written or purchases made while the client (or the suspect) is traveling?

The investigators at Complete Legal Investigations, Inc., have developed and maintained these fraud detection skills through experience and continuing education. Our principle is a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) who has investigated hundreds of cases of white collar crime, fraud and embezzlement. We recognize the potential for the financial abuse of elderly and disabled clients, and we know how to “follow the money.”

Benefits

• Discover evidence of misappropriation of funds, fraud and embezzlement.
• Protect the client from depletion of his or her estate.
• Preserve the client’s limited financial resources.
• Provide evidence to law enforcement for possible criminal prosecution of a suspected fraudster.

Call us today at 561-687-8381, or email us at info@completelegalinv.com

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