Case Study: Multi-Faceted Investigation Drives Legal Victory

Background

Integras Intelligence offers a wide array of services to arm legal clients with vital information they need to win cases.

Situation

An employee is suing her employer for a leg injury she allegedly sustained on the job. Before heading to court, the lawyers representing the employer wanted to know more about this individual and her alleged injury.

Solution

The law firm wanted answers to three questions:

1. Did this woman have any history of similar litigation?
2. Had she been involved in any criminal or fraudulent activity in the past?
3. Were there any financial pressures in her life that might motivate her to file a false claim?

Integras formulated and deployed a multi-part investigation, which included checks of:

• Criminal records
• Civil records
• Media databases
• Social media accounts

A criminal records check did not identify any history of criminal activity. A civil records search did not identify any previous instances of her suing others, but it did uncover a recent unpaid state tax lien of approximately $5,000. The tax lien was a possible indication that she was having difficulty paying expenses and was an excellent reason for further investigation.

Media and internet research did not identify any derogatory references to the employee. However, an investigative analyst researching her social media accounts uncovered an interesting and relevant fact.

The employee had “liked” a Facebook post about an upcoming 5k road race in her community. Additional internet research found that the woman had participated in numerous road races over the years, although no results were found since her alleged accident.

Was she injured, as she claimed, or not?

Based on this information, Integras began monitoring her social media accounts, looking for information that might undermine her injury claim. After several weeks of monitoring, she and her friends began commenting in public posts on Facebook that they’d see each other at the race.

The client asked Integras to deploy a surveillance team to the race. The surveillance team captured video footage of the employee participating in the event, undermining her claim that she was significantly injured on the job.

Conclusion

By choosing a legal support partner with a broad range of investigative capabilities, the law firm representing the employer was able to obtain key evidence to support their client’s case.

The combined information produced by multiple types of research led to a favorable outcome for the law firm’s client.