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Law 792-PP: Advanced Legal Research: Fact Investigation

Fact Investigation

Fact investigation is an important research skill for any lawyer. Use fact investigation skills to:

  • Investigate your clients claims
  • Investigate opposition claims
  • Identify persons, places, or things
  • Support legal analysis
  • Find and investigate experts

What is Fact Investigation

Fact investigation involves many aspects of finding facts or information related to your practice. These can include:

•Finding people and their background
•Finding missing people
•Proper name searching
•Finding telephone numbers and addresses
•Online communities
•Social networking sites
•Genealogical sites
•News sites
•Finding and researching expert witnesses
•Finding altered or removed web pages
•Credit reports
•Pay investigative databases

Bibiliography

Christopher J. Akin, How to Discover and Use Social Media-Related Evidence, 37 Litigation 32 (2011).

Joshua Briones & Ana  Tagvoryan, Social Media as Evidence: Cases, Practice Pointers, and Techniques (2013).

Joshua L. Brunty & Katherine Helenek, Social Media Investigation for Law Enforcement (2012).

Allison Clemency, “Friending,” “Following,” and “Digging” Up Evidentiary Dirt: The Ethical Implications of Investingating Information on Social Media Websites, 43 Ariz. St. L.J. 2012 (2011).

Breanna M. Democko, Social Media and the Rules on Authentication, 43 U. Tol. L. Rev. 367 (2012).

Steven S. Gensler, Special Rules for Social Media Discovery?, 65 Ark. L. Rev. 7 (2012).

John Gilliland, The Admissibility of Social Media Evidence, 39 Litigation 20 (2013).

Carole A. Levitt and  Mark E. Rosch, Finding Info Like a Pro, Volume 1: Mining the Internet's publicly available resources for investigative research (2010)

Carole A. Levitt and  Mark E. Rosch, Finding Info Like a Pro, Volume 2: Mining the Internet's public records for investigative research (2010).

Patrick Marshall, What You Say on Facebook May Be Used Against You in a Court of Family Law:  Analysis of this new form of electronic evidence and why it should be on every matrimonial attorney’s radar, 63 Ala. L. Rev. 1115 (2012).

Nicholas O. McCann, Tips for Authenticating Social Media Evidence, 100 Ill. B.J. 482 (2012).

Lawrence Morales, “What You Post or Tweet Can and Will be Used Against You in a Court of Law”, 60 The Advoc. (Texas) 32 (2012).

Justin P. Murphy & Adrian Fontecilla, Social Media Evidence in Government Investigations and Criminal Proceedings: A Frontier of New Legal Issues, 19 Rich. J.L. & Tech 11 (2013).

Christopher E. Parker & Travis B. Swearingen, “Tweet” Me Your Status: Social Media in Discovery & Trial, 59 Fed. Law. 34 (2012).

Social Media Law Center, Nat’l L. J., http://www.law.com (then follow Social Media Law Center hyperlink in top right) (last visited June 11, 2013).

How to search by image, Google.com, https://support.google.com/images/answer/1325808?hl=en (last visited June 11, 2013)

TinEye Reverse Image Search, http://www.tineye.com/ (last visited June 11, 2013)

122 Am. Jur. Trials 421 (2011) (Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Other Social Media in Trials)