Practice areas we support
Case Theory Investigations is retained by attorneys. The work looks different across practice areas, but the standard does not: find what the facts support, document it properly, and be able to testify to it.
Criminal defense investigation
Independent fact investigation for defense counsel in Albuquerque and across New Mexico — the interviews, scene work and discovery review the state's file does not contain.
The state's file is not the investigation
Discovery tells you what the state chose to document. It rarely tells you what the second responding officer saw, what the neighbor across the street remembers, whether the complaining witness told a different story a month later, or what the scene actually looks like at ten at night in February. Those facts exist, and if the defense does not develop them, no one will.
Defense investigation here means reading the entire file, identifying what is assumed rather than established, and going out to test it.
What defense assignments typically involve
- Discovery review and a source-cited chronology, including a list of what was referenced but never produced
- Interviews with state witnesses, recorded where preservation matters
- Locating witnesses who have moved or stopped cooperating, including alibi witnesses
- Scene documentation: sightlines, lighting, distances, and identification of nearby cameras before footage is overwritten
- Canvassing for witnesses who never appeared in a police report
- Background and social-media research on state witnesses relevant to credibility
- Mitigation and background development for sentencing and plea negotiation
- Testimony at suppression hearings, pretrial motions and trial
Timing around custody and settings
Defense work is calendar-driven in a way other practice areas are not. Where a client is in custody, or where an arraignment, preliminary hearing or motions deadline is close, the sequence changes: perishable field evidence and witness contact come first, thorough file review follows. Rush assignments under 48 hours are accepted subject to availability.
Suppression motions are won on details that only exist if someone visited the scene.
Working with public defenders and contract counsel
Assignments from contract defenders and appointed counsel are welcome, and scope is set with the budget in mind. A tightly scoped six-hour assignment — locate and interview one witness, document one scene — is often worth more to a case than an open-ended instruction to investigate.
Reporting that does not hurt the client
Findings are reported to counsel first and in whatever form counsel wants. Where a fact is unhelpful, you hear it immediately by phone so you can decide what is reduced to writing and when. Written reports are drafted on the assumption they may be produced.
Questions counsel asks
Can you interview the alleged victim?
Where the person is not represented and contact is not prohibited by a condition of release or court order, yes. Any question about whether contact is proper is raised with counsel before an approach is made.
Do you take work from appointed counsel?
Yes. Assignments from contract and appointed defense counsel are common, and scope is set to fit the authorized budget.
How early should counsel retain an investigator?
As early as possible. Security footage is often overwritten within thirty days, scenes change, and witnesses become harder to locate with every month that passes.
What if your investigation confirms the state's case?
You are told promptly. Knowing the case is factually solid changes the plea conversation, and it is far better to learn it in month two than at a hearing.
Civil litigation support
Fact development for plaintiff and defense counsel — locating parties and witnesses, documenting conditions and damages, and testing the account the other side has adopted.
Discovery answers what you ask. Investigation tells you what to ask.
By the time a deposition is scheduled, both sides have a version of events. Independent investigation is what tells you which parts of the other side's version are documented, which are assumed, and which will not survive a photograph taken from the right angle.
Where investigation moves a civil matter
- Locating parties, witnesses and former employees, including people who have left the state
- Pre-deposition witness interviews so you know the answer before you ask the question
- Premises and scene documentation in slip-and-fall, premises liability and motor vehicle matters
- Identifying and preserving third-party video before retention periods expire
- Background and public-records research on parties, businesses and corporate relationships
- Document and record review with a chronology counsel can use in a brief
- Deposition and hearing testimony, including standby
Damages and conditions are documented, not described
A written description of a hazardous stair, an unlit parking lot or a blind intersection persuades no one. Dated photographs taken from the vantage point that matters, with measurements and lighting conditions noted, are exhibits. Documenting a condition early also captures it before it is repaired — after which the only evidence it existed is the record someone made.
Conditions are repaired, footage is overwritten, and witnesses move. Investigation is mostly a question of when.
Before mediation and settlement conferences
Investigation is frequently most valuable in the weeks before mediation, when both sides are pricing risk. A witness statement that contradicts the other side's central assertion, or documentation that a condition existed for months, changes the number in the room. It is also cheaper than discovering the same fact after trial preparation has begun.
Insurance and employment matters
Insurance defense counsel use the firm for claim-related fact investigation and witness statements. Employment counsel use it for interviews with former coworkers and supervisors in discrimination, harassment and wrongful termination matters, where the useful witnesses are usually people who no longer work there and are no longer easy to find.
Questions counsel asks
Do you do asset searches?
Public-records research on property and business interests is available in support of collection and judgment matters. Anything requiring financial-institution records is outside what can be obtained lawfully and is declined.
Can you interview an opposing party?
No. Represented parties are not contacted. Unrepresented witnesses, former employees and third parties may be approached, and identity and purpose are always disclosed truthfully.
When is the best time to bring in an investigator?
Before the conditions change and before depositions. Early scene documentation and pre-deposition interviews return more value than the same work done after the record is set.
Do you work for plaintiffs, defendants, or both?
Both. The work is the same either way: establish what the facts support and document it so it withstands challenge.
Family law and custody matters
Careful factual documentation for family law counsel — enough to support the hearing, handled without escalating an already difficult matter.
Restraint is part of the assignment
Family matters are different. The parties will keep dealing with each other after the hearing, often for years, and an investigation conducted aggressively can damage a client's position more than any fact it uncovers. The standard here is to document what the court will actually want evidence of, do it lawfully and unobtrusively, and stop there.
What is typically useful
- Documenting a living situation or household composition relevant to a custody determination
- Interviews with teachers, neighbors, relatives and other third parties who have observed the relevant circumstances
- Locating a party who has moved or cannot be served
- Verifying an address, employment or residency claim made in a pleading
- Public-records and background research relevant to a party's representations to the court
- A clear, dated written report counsel can use at a hearing
What is declined
Assignments are declined where the evident purpose is to locate someone protected by an order of protection, to monitor a former partner, or to obtain material that could not lawfully be obtained. We do not place tracking devices, access another person's accounts or devices, or record conversations we are not party to where the law does not permit it. If a request crosses that line, you will get a direct answer at the intake call rather than an invoice later.
Anything obtained improperly is worse than nothing. It is inadmissible, and it turns the hearing into an argument about how it was obtained.
Working with the client's expectations
Clients in family matters often arrive with a theory and a wish list. Counsel usually benefits from the investigator explaining plainly what can be documented, what cannot, and what a court is likely to find relevant. That conversation early saves money and prevents a client from spending on work that will not help them.
Reports for hearings
Findings are documented in dated reports written to be read by a judge and by opposing counsel. Where the report is likely to be an exhibit or contested, the investigator is available to testify to how the information was obtained.
Questions counsel asks
Do you conduct surveillance in custody matters?
Only where it is lawful, proportionate and genuinely likely to produce evidence a court will find relevant. It is discussed and scoped explicitly at intake, and it is often not the right tool.
Can you access a spouse's phone, email or accounts?
No. That is unlawful, and anything obtained that way would damage the case it was meant to help.
Will you work directly with the client?
The firm is retained by counsel. Interviews with your client are conducted under your direction as part of your case preparation.
How discreet is the work?
Third-party contacts are made without disclosing case strategy or client detail, and field documentation is done unobtrusively from lawful vantage points.
Personal injury matters
Getting to the scene, the vehicles and the video before they are gone — and finding the witnesses who never made it into the crash report.
The evidence in an injury case has a limited window
The intersection is resurfaced. The vehicle goes to salvage. The convenience store overwrites its recording on a thirty-day loop. The witness who stopped at the scene gave a first name to an officer who never pursued it. Most of what decides a personal injury case is available for a short window, and the file that gets built in the first month is usually the file that gets tried.
What investigation adds
- Scene documentation with photographs, measurements, sightlines and lighting at the time of day the collision occurred
- Identifying nearby businesses and residences with cameras, and getting a preservation request to them quickly
- Vehicle and property documentation before repair, storage release or salvage
- Locating witnesses listed by first name only, or not listed at all
- Canvassing for the people who saw it and left before officers arrived
- Pre-deposition interviews so you know the answer before you ask the question
- Documenting conditions in premises liability matters before the hazard is repaired
Premises matters turn on the condition, not the description
A written description of an unlit stairwell, a pooled entryway or a broken handrail persuades no one. Dated photographs from the vantage point that matters, with measurements and lighting conditions noted, are exhibits. Documenting early also captures the condition before it is repaired — after which the only proof it existed is the record somebody thought to make.
A repair made the week after the incident is a defense argument unless someone photographed the condition first.
Before mediation
Investigation is often most valuable in the weeks before mediation, when both sides are pricing risk. A witness statement that contradicts the defense narrative, or documentation that a hazard had existed for months, changes the number in the room. It is also considerably cheaper than developing the same fact after trial preparation has started.
Working with defense counsel
Insurance defense counsel retain the firm for the same reasons from the other direction: independent scene documentation, statements from witnesses the claim file never reached, and background research on representations made in a demand package.
Findings arrive as a dated written report with indexed photographs, and the investigator is available to testify to how the documentation was made.
Questions counsel asks
How soon after a collision should you be retained?
As soon as the matter is signed. Third-party video is frequently gone within thirty days, vehicles are released or salvaged, and scenes change with weather and construction.
Can you get security footage from a business?
We identify who controls the recording and make the request promptly, which is often enough. Where a business declines, you at least know it exists and can subpoena it before the retention window closes.
Do you do accident reconstruction?
No. The firm documents the scene, the vehicles and the witnesses so a reconstruction expert has accurate material to work from, and coordinates with the expert your office retains.
Will you interview the defendant driver?
Not once they are represented. Unrepresented witnesses, passengers and bystanders are contacted with identity and purpose disclosed truthfully.
Employment matters
The useful witnesses in an employment case usually no longer work there — and are no longer easy to find.
The witnesses have scattered
Discrimination, harassment, retaliation and wrongful termination matters turn on what people saw and heard over a period of months. By the time a complaint is filed, the coworkers who witnessed it have often moved on to other employers, other cities or other states. Current employees, meanwhile, have obvious reasons to be careful about what they say. Both problems are investigative rather than legal.
What investigation adds
- Locating former employees, including people who have left New Mexico
- Interviews with former coworkers, supervisors and managers, recorded where preservation matters
- Timeline reconstruction from personnel files, performance reviews, emails and scheduling records
- Identifying comparators — who else was disciplined, promoted or terminated, and on what stated basis
- Documenting the sequence between a protected complaint and an adverse action
- Background research on a business, its ownership and related entities
- Testimony at hearing or trial about the statements obtained
Timelines win these cases
Retaliation claims live or die on sequence. A document review that places the complaint, the sudden performance write-up and the termination on a single dated chronology, with each entry cited back to the page it came from, is frequently the most useful document in the file — for either side.
A dated chronology built from the employer's own records is harder to argue with than any witness.
Care with current employees
Contacting someone who still works for the opposing party requires care about who is represented, what their role is, and whether the approach could be characterized as improper. Those questions are raised with counsel before contact rather than after, and represented parties and management-level employees within the scope of representation are not approached.
Both sides of the table
The firm works for plaintiff-side employment counsel and for employers defending claims. On the defense side that usually means independent interviews of the people named in a complaint and documentation of the process actually followed — which is often better than the process the file suggests.
Questions counsel asks
Can you interview current employees of the opposing party?
It depends on their role and on representation. The question is raised with counsel before any approach, and management-level employees within the scope of representation are not contacted.
Can you obtain personnel files?
Not directly. Investigation works from the records your discovery produces and from witness accounts; it does not obtain protected employment records by pretext.
How do you find former employees who moved out of state?
Public-records research and locate work, followed by contact by phone or video where travel is not warranted. Where an in-person interview matters, travel is quoted before it is undertaken.
Do you do workplace misconduct investigations for employers?
The firm works for attorneys. Where counsel is directing an internal investigation as part of legal advice or litigation preparation, that work is within scope.
Other matters, and what never changes
The sequence changes between practice areas. The standard does not.
A criminal matter with a client in custody is driven by settings and by evidence that perishes in thirty days, so field work and witness contact come first. A civil matter is driven by the discovery schedule and by mediation, so documenting conditions early and interviewing before depositions returns the most value. Family matters are governed by restraint as much as by findings, because the parties keep dealing with each other long after the hearing.
What stays the same
- The firm is retained by counsel and works under counsel's direction as part of trial preparation
- Conflicts are checked and scope is agreed before any time is billed
- Findings are reported whether or not they help the theory being built
- Every assignment ends in documentation that can support testimony
- Nothing is obtained by a method that would make it inadmissible
Beyond these five areas
The firm supports insurance defense counsel with claim-related fact investigation and witness statements, and probate counsel with heir and beneficiary location. If your matter does not fit a category, the intake call will establish quickly whether investigation will help it.
Common questions
Which practice areas do you support?
Criminal defense, civil litigation, family and custody matters, personal injury, employment disputes, and insurance or fraud investigations. Probate and estate matters occasionally call for heir location.
Do you take work outside these areas?
Often, yes. The question at intake is not what the matter is called but whether a factual question exists that investigation can answer before your deadline. If the answer is no, we will say so.
Do you work for both plaintiffs and defendants?
Yes. The standard does not change with the side: establish what the facts support, document it properly, and be able to testify to it.
Can you support a matter venued in New Mexico for an out-of-state firm?
Yes. Files transfer electronically, updates come by phone or email, and reports are delivered in a format your office can file directly.
See the full range of investigative services, or read how the firm works.
Tell us the deadline. We will tell you what is possible.
A short intake call is enough to know whether an investigation will move your case — and what it would take to get there before your next court date.