Family Law Investigations, Real Life Surveillance Audio, QOTD, Jessica's Search, Four Core Pillars of a Private Investigation Firm

In this episode we cover topics such as:-

1- Family Law & Private Investigation;

2- Surveillance On A Reckless Parent;

3- Question Off The Day;

4- Reuniting Families;

5- Our Core Business Beliefs.

Got a question for our podcast or do you need to contact Simon and the Down Under Investigations team? Simply email info@downunderinvestigations.com or call 1300849007 or check out www.downunderinvestigations.com

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to Season Three and another episode of Down Under Investigations- The Truth. You are about to hear rom Simon, our host, who has well over 20 years experience in the private investigation industry. Simon leads the team at Down Under Investigations who are committed to professionalism, integrity, and their ability to get results for their clients. Our podcast will open up the truth about the world of private investigation, discussing real life case studies, the latest news, cutting edge surveillance, and skip tracing techniques, plus legal issues and support. So stay with us as we join Simon, now.

Speaker 2: 0:36

Welcome to the second episode of the season. We're very excited to have you with us. Stay tuned as we talk about how a private investigator can work in the family law area. You will hear about Jessica being reunited with her parents, her natural parents. You're gonna hear about the four core elements of a private investigation business, and we have a live surveillance audio clip to share with you, so stay tuned.

: 1:05

The services of a private investigator are often sought by one or both parties when involved in a family law dispute. Most matters of divorce and custody battles for children can be very emotional and complex for all parties involved in Australia. As private investigators, we play a vital role in supporting a party and a case involving family law. We're either contacted by a law firm or a lawyer or an individual party to use our services, which are offered to put them in the best position, armed with knowledge, information, and what they need in order to get the best outcome in a case. We are regularly instructed to assist in family law matters such as property settlements, custody battles, parenting arrangements, and other financial matters and matters to do with someone's behavior and other party's behavior. In a matter, we often investigate and gather information that can be used in mediation or to support court proceedings. We regularly give evidence in court also supplying footage, audio visual, or simply reports and reporting on a surveillance matter.

Speaker 2: 2:21

So when it comes to child custody, a private investigator can typically assist in supporting one party's claim that is the primary caregiver for the child. This can involve carrying out surveillance to gather information and evidence about the other parent and their lifestyle. Private investigators may also be asked to help with the concerns about the child's welfare. We carry out background checks, checks on individuals who may be associated with the child's care, and this is to ensure and make sure that they don't pose a risk or expose the child to offensive, criminal, abusive, or damaging behavior. So by another party that's involved with the child, that's not just the parent of the child or ex-spouse of our client. It could also be grandparents, it could be friends, it could be other people that are involved in that person's life, maybe a new partner. When it comes to financial settlements, we definitely get involved. We help with the concerns about financial situation of one party. We carry out investigations to find hidden assets perhaps, which could affect the child support payable or property support and property settlement arrangements. And of course, we're always involved with skip tracing and process serving, whether it's an ex-spouse that needs to be located, skip traced and then served or another party to the proceedings, we're very much involved. This keeps other family members, friends and other individuals out of the situation, and it's handled by a third party who knows what they're doing, have the experience, the knowledge, the know-how to diffuse a situation that could be volatile, where there could be highly emotional. That's where we get involved. It's always important to choose a private investigator who's well-versed in Australian regulations and laws. They need to be capable of delivering concise and clear reports. They need to be able to give evidence in court. They need to make sure that the evidence is permissible in court, that it hasn't been obtained illegally, and they also need to be able to provide reports to mediators or lawyers or other people involved and have those discussions. In Australia. You should always choose a private investigator who has experience and has the necessary skills to support you in the case. They should be able to provide evidence and help your party in its dispute. Make sure you're get in touch with us if you need us support when it comes to a family law matter that you may be involved with or for a family member or friend

Speaker 3: 5:01

We're currently out on a surveillance job and I just wanted to just let our listeners know what's going on with this file. We've been contacted by a female who is going through separation. Her ex-partner has custody of the children every second weekend. It's a Saturday morning and we've just been following him this morning. We followed him last night and kept an eye on him, what he was up to and you know, pretty much had a night in. Earlier this morning, he's got up, put the kids in the car, headed to Bunnings and you know, that's all fine, well, and good. You know, taking the kids to, to the shops. He needed to get some things obviously, or wanted to get some things. So we've just followed him in Bunnings just now. And, he's gone into Bunnings with these two children. We've got a three year old and a five year old, innocent to the separation. Innocent children, you know, this is nothing to do with their fault or anything like that. Um, and so the ex-partner want us to follow him, which we are doing, just to see what he's up to see his behavior around the kids. He's known to have some drug issues. He's known to yeah, not be of good character, and that's what we are trying to determine. So, in Bunnings what we've seen is we've seen him, you know, getting engrossed in looking at tools and other, other things in the store, not paying any attention to the children. Children have both wandered off up other aisles all over the place and could have got themselves into some trouble, could have been I guess taken by someone else at any stage. He's not, he's just not caring for these children, and it's very disappointing. It's very upsetting. We've got footage of this which we'll take to the client once this finishes, but that's not all we've managed to get. We've then followed him after he's finished at Bunnings and we've realized that he's actually slipped a few items up his jumper as he's in the aisles and he's pulling them out as he's got back to his car and throwing them in the back of his ute. So shoplifting, not caring for these kids, then... And this is probably the most upsetting of all, and it made us quite disturbed and perturbed, he's pulled out from his glove box a bong, a drug smoking item, and he sat in the driver's seat of the car with the kids in the back and put the window down just a little bit. But he's decided to take some marijuana with the kids in the car with no fresh air, absolutely disgusting behavior. I mean, we wanted to go and sort of<laugh> rescue those kids. That's awful. Now the problem is our client, she's gone away for the weekend and she's, so we've gone obviously made efforts to contact her and get onto her about this. We got video footage of all of that, what he's up to with the kids in the car. And the final, final thing he did, the, the guys obviously he got some issues, is he's got in his car, taken some marijuana with the kids, and then as he's pulling out of his, out of the car park onto the main road, the road's a little bit wet and slippery this morning, but he's decided to get the car sideways, basically put his foot right down, plant it to the floor, and just erratic crazy behavior. It's sad, it's sad that the kids have to go through this. You know what the win is? The win is that we have checked our footage. We've got very good clear video footage of all of this, which we can take to our client. Our client will probably take to either straight to the courts or try and get an undertaking from his lawyers that he will only have supervised visits or cease visitation with these children, because he's reckless. He's putting their lives in danger, he's putting their health in danger. I mean it's not just about the role model that he is, but it's very upsetting. So anyway just thought I would check in and give you a bit of a bit of a background on a job that we're just in the middle of completing. And, um, yeah. So anyway,

Speaker 1: 10:35

Do you have a question for Simon and the team at Down Under Investigations, we are running a questions of the day competition. If your question gets answered by Simon on the podcast, we will send you a prize value at a hundred dollars. To send in your question, simply use the contact page on our website at www.downunderinvestigations.com or email info@downunderinvestigations.com.

Speaker 2: 11:03

It's now time for our question of the day, which is coming from Warren in Geelong. Warren, thanks for your question. He asks, what is one of your favorite cases to talk about? Um, probably the one that we like talking about and one that was a spectacular result was a couple of years ago now when we had Jessica as a client and she came into our office. She wanted to find her natural parents. Basically. She came and met with some of our team. We discussed what she had and what she needed and what she was after. She had a look of sadness, but hope in her eyes and she'd basically been adopted as a baby and had spent her entire life wondering about her birth parents. She handed our team a faded photograph, which had a young couple standing in front of, of their house in a suburb near Sydney. The date was from 45 years earlier, and that was scrolled on the back of the photograph. Jessica was pretty certain of her parents' first names, but that was the only information she had, and she was hoping that we could help her find her birth parents. To be honest, we weren't certain if we could get a result, so we didn't make any promises, but we did assure her we would do everything we possibly could to help her find the information about her natural parents that she was after. So our team spent several weeks pouring over databases, property records, interviewing people. The feeling was we weren't quite getting anywhere. It felt like a bit of a dead end case. Then we heard back from a contacted a local council in Sydney who believed he had recognized the actual area where this photograph was taken. So we made time as a team to wander that suburb and that area for an afternoon to look for identifying signs, possibly the house or something to do with the house and ask a lot of questions and see what we could find about this couple. After much searching and looking around these streets, one of our team actually identified a chimney on a house that appeared identical to the chimney of the house. Behind the couple in the photograph, the house looked very different. However, the chimney was just a spitting image of the one that we already had a photo of. So we made inquiries at that residence, and found out that it definitely wasn't the residence of the natural parents of Jessica any longer. However, we did ultimately do a few searches and find out that it was the correct residence, and it was where they were taking photos when they did own the property. That was some 20 years earlier. So we made further database searches and checks, and we got more information about this couple. We got their full names, dates of birth, so that was the next step. We started searching and conducting inquiries regarding these names and their dates of birth because we needed that information to narrow down the search because the names were very common and the dates of birth just helped really narrow it down a whole lot. So we made the searches and checks and we ended up finding an address in a town in Queensland. So we did a few more searches, rang some local people and asked some questions to see if we could identify exactly where this couple had moved to and where they were living in this town in Queensland. Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot of information available simply through online searches and through phone calls. So we realized we had to put boots on the ground, so that's what we did. Two of our agents went to this town and did walk around knocking on doors, showing the photograph of the couple, asking questions, seeing if anyone knew anything, seeing if anyone, any memories were jogged. And eventually our team were able to identify a female who still lived in the town who used to be a neighbor of this couple. She gave our team information, basically talking about them moving to another town, about 80 kilometers away so that the male could find work in his field of farming. And so we headed there, our team headed there, and we began knocking on more doors. And so we began searching this very small town, basically a pub, a servo, and a few dozen houses. A small primary school knocked on each door, and we found the couple. We found Jessica's parents. They were very quick to identify themselves. They remembered Jessica and that they had adopted her out at a very young age. They had written down her date of birth, they knew everything. They were a hundred percent her parents. And when we showed them the photograph that we had, they knew the address. They knew exactly where that photo was taken. Between themselves and Jessica, they arranged to meet up to reunite. She went and met them at their house. They talked about the past, talked about what had gone on. She was so excited to meet them. She was so genuinely pleased to finally have that hope realized and have that gap in her life filled knowing her natural parents talking about their history, her history. And for her it was just a real great occasion and we know it was for the parents as well. So sometimes we get brilliant results. Like that doesn't happen on every occasion. Sometimes we find people deceased. Sometimes people just take a long, long time to be found, but we believe if we can't find them, that no one will. And that's why we do what we do simply to help people change their lives. That's why we love being private investigators. Thank you, Warren, for your question of the day.

: 17:18

We definitely have a proud record of providing services for some law firms. Some for well over 20 years we've been working for the same clients. Lawyers, we confidently know that our team is second to none. There's rules and laws that govern our work, but we believe there should be a high standards set for process servers and private investigators, which should be set individually or by the company that you're employed by. It's regular that law firms will contact us after having issues with a previous provider, and the reasons are many and varied. So what we believe a law firm should expect from their process server or pro investigator is the following. They should definitely expect honesty and integrity. One core quality we aim for on every file is to always tell the truth.

Speaker 2: 18:09

Our industry does not need liars. It does not need deceivers and cheats. Clients can always be confident that we act with integrity and we speak with honesty. When updating clients on files, we'll always be truthful about processes and outcomes. To mislead a client or colleague, even in a small detail, creates mistrust. We appreciate that the trust our clients and colleagues place in us, and we would never want to damage that. Trust is built over years and years, but can be destroyed in a moment. So by conducting each matter with honesty and integrity, we know that trust remains intact. The second thing that every law firm lawyer business should look out for in a process server and private investigator is that they get results for most files. Whether it's skip tracing or process serving, they can be quite straightforward. However, there's others where they're complex and difficult. One of our core qualities obtaining results has been achieved through decades in the industry, experience learning, developing our skills and techniques. We've found some new clients will come to us with matters that they have been at a standstill for months and even years, simply because a previous supplier has been unable to conduct a skip trace or serve an evasive defendant. Through our knowledge, perseverance, and experience, we've very often been able to quickly locate and serve these matters, which has allowed the matter to progress through the courts to a resolution. This is a win for not only the law firm, but specifically their client that they're representing. We're committed to doing whatever it takes to get results.<laugh> obviously within the bounds of the law, but we treat each matter as if it's our own and that's what drives us to achieve. The third thing that you can always expect from a private investigator or process server, or you should expect is professionalism. Our industry demands the highest levels of excellence when acting on behalf of a law firm, business owner or individual client. Our industry can't afford to be slack or sloppy through action and communication at a high level. Preference and emotion have no place. We treat every file and matter with the same high level of attention and care, whether that's skip tracing from our private offices, giving evidence in court, repossessing vehicles, collecting debts, serving documents, obtaining evidence, taking statements. We always do it with the awareness that we represent another person's business or personal interests, and that's what motivates us to act in a professional manner. And the fourth thing we believe that you should look for as a law firm or lawyer or business owner from every private investigator is that you attain and achieve value. We're always upfront about our costs and our pricing, which means a client can always make the decision as to whether we add value to their law firm or business. We've never had a client complain about pricing or being overcharged. Our pricing is set at a competitive level, yet through going above and beyond to get results. We believe that true value is achieved by using down under investigations. I've offering. Extended payment terms can allow law firms to recover costs from a defendant or other party before paying for our services. On many occasions, businesses thrive through honesty and integrity, results, professionalism, and value. So we believe these four pillars of our business has led to success for decades and will keep us at the top of our industry for many years to come. But we don't take that for granted. We operate Australia wide. We've got agents wherever you need them, able to handle your matter professionally, quickly, and at a reasonable rate. So why not get in contact with us if, uh, you're a lawyer or law firm and need what we offer.

Speaker 1: 22:07

We would really appreciate if you would take the time to subscribe, rate and review this podcast. Please also check out our social media on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. If you'd like to get in touch with Simon and the Down Under Investigation team for any reason, please check out our website at www.downunderinvestigations.com or call 1300849007 or email info@downinvestigations.com. Thanks for listening.