Investigative services for attorneys in New Mexico
Six lines of investigative work, used alone or in sequence, all performed under counsel's direction and documented for the file.
Witness and client interviews
Pretrial interviews with witnesses, clients and third parties — prepared from the file, documented for the record, and recorded when preservation matters.
Interviews prepared from the record, not from a script
An interview is only as good as the preparation behind it. Before any witness is contacted, the relevant discovery, police reports, prior statements and exhibits are read so that the questions asked are the ones your case actually needs answered — and so that inconsistencies with an earlier account can be addressed while the witness is still in front of us.
That preparation is what separates a usable statement from a page of notes. A witness who says the light was green matters far less than a witness who says the light was green, describes where they were standing, explains why they remember it, and accounts for the statement they gave an officer six months ago.
What an interview assignment includes
- Review of the file materials relevant to the witness before contact is made
- Locating and approaching the witness, including repeat attempts when the first contact fails
- The interview itself, conducted in person where practical or by phone where distance requires it
- A written memorandum with date, time, location, who was present and the substance of what was said
- Audio recording and a copy of the file when you want the statement preserved
- A short call with counsel when something in the interview changes the picture
Recorded statements versus written memoranda
Recording protects you when a witness is likely to move, recant, or become unavailable, and it removes any dispute over the investigator's written account. It also means the witness hears themselves being recorded, which some people find inhibiting. The choice belongs to counsel, and we will tell you plainly which way we would lean given the witness and the posture of the case.
Every interview is conducted knowing the memorandum may end up in opposing counsel's hands.
Client and defendant interviews
Interviews with your own client — intake, timeline building, or working through a version of events that has changed — are handled with the same documentation discipline. Where the interview is part of your trial preparation and conducted under your direction, it is treated as your work product, and we take direction from your office on what is memorialized and what is not.
Reluctant, hostile and hard-to-reach witnesses
Some witnesses do not want to be found and some do not want to talk. There is a large difference between the two, and the approach differs accordingly. Where a witness cannot be located at all, the assignment usually starts with witness location work before any interview is attempted. Where a witness is simply avoiding contact, in-person follow-up through field investigation is often what produces the conversation a phone call could not.
No witness is pressured, misled about who we are, or contacted where contact would be improper. That restraint is not only ethical, it protects the statement from being attacked later.
What you receive
Every interview assignment ends with a written investigative report you can put in your file, use in negotiation, or use as the basis for a cross-examination. If the statement later needs to be put before the court, the investigator who took it is available to testify to how and when it was obtained.
Questions counsel asks
Do you record every interview?
No. Recording is done when counsel wants the statement preserved or the witness is likely to become unavailable. Otherwise the interview is documented in a written memorandum. The decision is made with counsel before contact.
Can you interview a represented party?
No. Represented parties are not contacted directly. Where representation is unclear, the question is raised with counsel before any approach is made.
How long does a witness interview take?
Most interviews run one to two hours including travel and write-up, though preparation time depends on how much file material has to be reviewed first. An estimate is provided at the intake call.
What if the witness says something that hurts our case?
You will be told, promptly and plainly. An investigator who reports only favorable facts leaves counsel unprepared for what the other side already knows.
Witness location and background research
Finding the people your case depends on — witnesses who moved, parties who stopped answering, and the background you need before deciding whether to call them.
When a name on a witness list is not enough
A witness list gives you a name and, if you are lucky, an address that was current when the report was written. People move, change numbers, lose housing, leave the state and stop answering calls from numbers they do not recognize. By the time a matter reaches a setting, the difference between a witness you can put on the stand and one you cannot is often just whether anyone did the work to find them.
Location work combines record research with old-fashioned follow-up: databases and public records to develop current addresses and associates, then verification in the field so you are not relying on a stale entry in a commercial database.
What location work covers
- Current address and telephone development for witnesses, parties, heirs and beneficiaries
- Verification that the person located is the right person, not a name match
- Relatives, associates and employment leads when direct contact fails
- Confirming whether a witness is in custody, hospitalized, deceased or out of state
- Support for service of process, including current-address confirmation before a server is sent
- Background preparation on a witness before counsel decides whether to call them
Background research before you commit to a witness
Calling a witness you have not researched is a risk. Public records, court history, prior statements and social media presence can all change how a witness will look on cross-examination — and whether their account matches what they told someone else two years ago. Background preparation gives counsel that picture before the decision is made rather than afterward.
The purpose is not to discredit the witness. It is that nothing about your own witness should surprise you at a hearing.
What we do not do
Location work is conducted with public records, lawful database access, and field verification. We do not pretext financial institutions, obtain protected records under false identity, or take assignments where the evident purpose is to find someone who has a protective order against the requesting party. If a locate request raises that concern, we will say so and decline.
How location work fits the rest of the file
Locating a witness is usually the first half of an assignment. Once found, most attorneys want a recorded or memorialized interview before the witness disappears again, and in-person contact through field investigation where a phone call has already failed. Findings are documented in a written report showing what was searched, what was found and what was eliminated.
Questions counsel asks
How long does it take to locate a witness?
Straightforward locates are often resolved within a day or two. Witnesses who are unhoused, transient, out of state or actively avoiding contact can take substantially longer, and you will get a realistic estimate rather than an optimistic one.
Can you locate someone with only a name?
Sometimes, but a name alone is the hardest starting point. A date of birth, prior address, relative's name, phone number or employer dramatically improves both the speed and the certainty of the result.
Do you serve process?
The firm supports service by confirming current addresses and patterns of presence so a process server is not sent to a stale address. Service itself is arranged separately.
What if the witness cannot be found?
You receive a written report of what was searched and what was eliminated. A documented diligent search has value in itself — it is often what supports a motion or an unavailability argument.
Case file and evidence review
Discovery read cover to cover and organized into a working chronology: what the other side actually has, what contradicts it, and what is missing.
Reading the entire production
Discovery arrives in volume and rarely in order. Reports reference supplements that arrive later, lapel video is produced without an index, medical records repeat the same twelve pages, and the one line that matters is on page 340 of an exhibit no one has opened. File review is the necessary work of reading all of it and turning it into something counsel can use in an afternoon.
What a file review produces
- A dated chronology of events built from the documents, with source citations back to the page
- An index of what was produced, organized so you can find an exhibit during a hearing
- A list of inconsistencies between reports, statements and physical evidence
- Identification of what is referenced but not produced — the gap list for your discovery motion
- A witness inventory: who appears in the file, what they said, and who has never been interviewed
- Notes on which factual questions are worth investigating and which are already answered
Gaps are as valuable as findings
The most useful product of a careful review is often a list of items that should exist and do not. A report that references body-worn video no one produced. A supplement that cites an interview with no accompanying memorandum. A chain of custody with a day missing in the middle. Those gaps are motions, and they only surface when someone reads the file as a whole rather than in the order it arrived.
A chronology built from the documents is the fastest way to see whether a case theory survives contact with the record.
Building toward the investigation
File review is where most engagements start, because it is what makes everything after it efficient. The chronology identifies which witnesses matter, so location work is aimed at the right people. The inconsistencies identify what to ask, so interviews are prepared rather than exploratory. The gap list identifies what has to be seen in person, which is where field investigation begins.
Format and delivery
Chronologies and indexes are delivered in whatever format your office actually uses — a document you can paste into a brief, a spreadsheet you can sort, or a summary memo for the file. Where the review itself becomes the deliverable, it is written as a formal investigative report suitable for the file.
Questions counsel asks
How much discovery can you handle?
Volume is a question of hours rather than capability. For large productions, the review is usually staged: an initial pass to index and chronologize, then a targeted deep read of the portions that matter, so the budget goes where the case does.
Can you work from an electronic production?
Yes. Electronic productions, disc-based discovery, video and audio files are all workable. Files can be transferred securely or delivered downtown.
Will you flag privileged or protected material?
Anything that appears to be inadvertently produced privileged material is flagged to counsel immediately and set aside rather than summarized.
Is file review worth it on a smaller case?
Often yes, and often as a shorter engagement. Even two or three hours spent building a chronology on a misdemeanor file can change the shape of the plea conversation.
Field investigation
Scene visits, canvassing, photographs and in-person follow-up — for the parts of a case that cannot be resolved from a desk.
Some facts only exist in person
Reports describe a scene. Photographs taken from one angle at one moment describe less than people assume. Whether a witness could actually see the doorway from where they say they stood, whether the streetlight works, whether the sightline the report assumes is blocked by a fence that has been there for years — none of that is in the file, and all of it can matter.
Field investigation is the work of going to the place, documenting what is there now, and finding the people who were there then.
What field work includes
- Scene visits with photographs, video, measurements and orientation documentation
- Sightline and lighting assessment, including returning at the time of day the events occurred
- Neighborhood and business canvassing for witnesses who never appeared in a report
- Identifying nearby cameras and the businesses that control them, before the footage is overwritten
- In-person follow-up with witnesses who will not answer a phone
- Vehicle, property and premises documentation for civil and premises matters
Canvassing produces the witnesses no one listed
Police canvasses are often brief and conducted at the wrong time of day. Knocking on the same doors on the same weekday evening the events occurred reaches a different set of people entirely — the neighbor who works days, the delivery driver on a regular route, the business that keeps its own security recording. Those witnesses do not appear on any list because no one asked.
Camera footage is the most perishable evidence in most cases. Locating it is a matter of days, not months.
Timing matters
Scenes change. Businesses overwrite recordings on a thirty-day cycle or less, construction alters sightlines, and memories fade in a predictable direction. Where a matter is new, field work is usually the assignment worth doing first, even before a full file review. Where a matter is older, field documentation still establishes what can and cannot be verified now, which is itself testimony.
Documentation you can use
Everything from the field comes back as dated, described photographs and a written report explaining what was documented, from where, and under what conditions. Where scene documentation becomes an exhibit, the investigator who took it is available to testify to its accuracy.
Field work across the Albuquerque metro and the surrounding counties is standard. See the service area for coverage outside the metro.
Questions counsel asks
Do you conduct surveillance?
Field work here is documentation and witness contact rather than covert surveillance. Where a matter genuinely calls for surveillance, that is discussed at intake and scoped explicitly, including what it can and cannot lawfully produce.
How quickly should scene work be done?
As early as possible. Security footage is frequently overwritten within thirty days, and scenes change. If a matter is new, field work is usually the first thing worth authorizing.
Can you photograph private property?
Documentation is done from public vantage points or with the property owner's permission. Where access requires permission, we obtain it or tell you it could not be obtained.
What do the photographs look like when they come back?
Dated, sequenced and described, with orientation noted, so an exhibit can be authenticated without guesswork about where the camera was standing.
Written investigative reports
Clear, dated, exhibit-ready reports that separate what was observed from what it might mean — written knowing opposing counsel may read them.
A report is a document that will be read by people who disagree with you
Investigative reports are produced. They are attached to motions, handed across a conference table in negotiation, and used as the outline for a cross-examination of the investigator who wrote them. A report written as though only your client will see it is a liability. Everything here is written on the opposite assumption.
In practice that means dates and times on everything, sources identified, observation kept separate from inference, and no adjective doing work the facts cannot support.
What a report contains
- The assignment as it was given, so scope is clear on the face of the document
- What was done, when, where and by whom, in chronological order
- What was observed or obtained, stated as observation rather than conclusion
- Attempts that failed, and what was ruled out — diligence is part of the record
- An index of attachments: photographs, recordings, documents and exhibits
- Where inference is offered, it is labeled as inference and the basis for it is stated
Interview memoranda
Statements taken during witness interviews are memorialized individually, with the date, location, who was present, how contact was made and the substance of what was said. Where the interview was recorded, the recording is delivered with the memorandum rather than summarized in place of it.
If a report cannot be defended line by line on the stand, it should not have been written that way.
Reports that state unwelcome findings
Sometimes the investigation does not support the theory. The witness confirms the state's account, the timeline holds, the scene photographs help the other side. That goes in the report, promptly and without softening, because counsel who learns it now can adjust and counsel who learns it at a hearing cannot.
Formats and turnaround
Reports are usually delivered within a few days of the field work being completed, faster on rush assignments. They arrive as a document your office can file, with attachments indexed and named so an exhibit can be pulled without hunting. Where the report is likely to become an exhibit, the investigator who wrote it is available to testify to it.
Questions counsel asks
Will your report be discoverable?
That depends on the posture of the matter and is counsel's call, not ours. Reports are written on the assumption that they may be produced, which is the safer assumption in every case.
Can we get an oral report first?
Yes, and many attorneys prefer it. Findings are commonly delivered by phone first so counsel can decide what should be reduced to writing and when.
How quickly can you deliver a report?
Most reports follow within a few days of completed field work. Rush assignments, including completion under 48 hours, are accepted subject to availability and confirmed at intake.
Do you provide the recordings and photographs with the report?
Yes. Attachments are delivered with the report and indexed, so the underlying material is in your file rather than only summarized in it.
Court testimony and case strategy
Hearing, deposition and trial testimony from the investigator who did the work — plus strategy sessions with counsel as the facts develop.
The investigator who did the work is the one who testifies
Testimony is not a separate product bolted onto an investigation. It is the reason the investigation was documented the way it was. Contemporaneous notes, dated photographs, recordings preserved rather than summarized, and reports that distinguish observation from inference all exist so that the person on the stand can answer precisely and without qualification.
Where testimony matters
- Suppression and pretrial motion hearings, where scene documentation or a witness contact is at issue
- Authenticating photographs, recordings and documents obtained during the investigation
- Establishing a diligent but unsuccessful search when a witness cannot be produced
- Impeachment support, where a witness's prior statement to the investigator differs from their testimony
- Depositions in civil matters, including standby when witness order is uncertain
- Trial testimony about interviews conducted, scenes documented and records obtained
Standby and scheduling
Court calendars rarely cooperate. Standby time is available for days when it is unclear whether a witness will be reached, and testimony engagements carry a minimum block because the day is committed regardless of when or whether the matter is called. Both are set out clearly at intake so nothing about the invoice is a surprise.
Preparation for testimony starts on the day the assignment is accepted, not the week of the hearing.
Case strategy consultation
Separately from testimony, many attorneys use scheduled sessions with the investigator as facts develop: reviewing what the file review turned up, deciding which witnesses are worth interviewing, or working out whether the remaining factual questions can be answered before the next setting. These conversations frequently save more investigative hours than they cost.
What we will not do on the stand
We testify to what was done and observed. We do not offer opinions the underlying work cannot support, characterize a witness's credibility, or stretch a finding because a case needs it. Restraint on the stand is what makes the rest of the testimony worth having.
Questions counsel asks
Do you testify as an expert witness?
Testimony is generally as a fact witness — what was done, observed, obtained and documented during the investigation. Anything beyond that scope should be discussed at intake so expectations are set correctly.
How much notice do you need for a hearing?
As much as you have. Short-notice appearances are frequently accommodated, but earlier notice protects against a calendar conflict.
Is standby time billed if the matter is never called?
Yes. A standby day is a committed day. The terms are set out at intake, and testimony engagements carry a minimum block.
Will you prepare with us before the hearing?
Yes, and it is strongly encouraged. A short preparation session ensures counsel knows exactly what the investigator can and cannot say on the record.
How assignments are scoped
Most engagements begin with a narrow question rather than a broad instruction to investigate.
Who saw the vehicle before the collision. Whether the complaining witness can still be located. What the second officer's lapel video shows that the report does not. Scoping to the question keeps the bill predictable and keeps the resulting report useful.
Work is billed hourly, in quarter-hour increments, at rates that vary by the type of work. Interviews, field investigation, complex assignments, rush turnarounds and testimony are each priced differently. A current rate card is provided at the intake call along with an estimate for the scope you describe, and larger matters may be handled on retainer.
Rush assignments
When a setting moves or a witness surfaces late, assignments can be completed in under 48 hours subject to availability. Rush work is priced differently and confirmed before it starts, so there is never a surprise on the invoice.
Working with your office
Files can be received electronically or dropped downtown. Progress updates come by phone or email on whatever cadence you prefer — most attorneys want a short check-in when the first interviews are complete and a call before the written report is finalized.
See the practice areas these services support, or read the full FAQ.
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.