Investigation Insights for Legal & Business Teams
THE MAYN FIELD NOTES · NEWSLETTER
Business disputes. Better questions. Clearer facts.
Practical investigation briefs for attorneys, paralegals, compliance teams, and business owners. Explore surveillance planning, vendor fraud, employee misconduct, and intellectual property fact-finding. Explore 30 practical briefsFEATURED FOCUS · BUSINESS LITIGATION
Turn a business concern into an investigative question.
Start with the transaction, activity, relationship, or timeline that needs independent verification. Explore how research and field investigation can support your legal or business team.
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Start with these insights
The assignment checklist
Make your first conversation productive. Prepare these five essentials:- Objective: What factual question needs an answer?
- People and places: Who and where should the scope cover?
- Known records: What information is already available?
- Timing: What event or deadline matters?
- Deliverables: What report format and update schedule will help your team?
THE RESOURCE LIBRARY
Find the right starting point
Choose a subject below. Each brief offers a focused question, practical preparation steps, and a next step for your team. Litigation Support Business Litigation Surveillance Vendor Fraud Compliance Intellectual Property Illustrative ScenariosLitigation Support
Why Law Firms Use Private Investigators
An attorney may know which facts matter while still needing someone to establish what happened outside the case file. Investigators can locate witnesses, document observable activity, research public records, and turn scattered information into an organized factual record.
A Paralegal’s Checklist for Assigning an Investigation
A clear assignment brief saves follow-up calls and helps field work begin with the right priorities. Paralegals are often the link between the attorney, client, records, and investigator.
What Makes an Investigative Report Useful to Attorneys
A long report is not automatically a useful report. Legal teams need to understand what was done, what was observed, where information came from, and what remains unresolved.
Witness Location: Information That Helps an Investigator
A witness locate is easier to scope when the legal team supplies reliable identifiers and explains why contact is needed. A name alone can produce misleading matches.
Preparing for a Witness Interview
An interview should gather a person’s account rather than steer them toward the answer someone wants. Preparation begins with a list of factual topics and the witness’s possible connection to them.
Budgeting an Investigation in Phases
A phased budget lets a legal team answer preliminary questions before committing to a broader assignment. Each phase should have a purpose and a decision point.
How to Locate a Witness or Defendant in Florida: A Litigator’s Guide to Skip Tracing
When a defendant dodges service or a key witness has moved, Florida litigators need a lawful, documented locate. How skip tracing works, the legal limits, diligent search for constructive service, and how to hand off a locate quickly.
Business Litigation
Turning a Business Dispute Into Investigative Questions
A disputed invoice or lost customer is a business problem, but it is not yet an investigation plan. A productive plan breaks the concern into questions that can be checked independently.
When to Bring an Investigator Into a Commercial Dispute
Timing affects what information is still available. A location may change, a witness may become difficult to reach, or an online listing may disappear while a business considers its options.
Building a Timeline From Conflicting Business Records
Emails, invoices, schedules, and witness accounts may describe the same event differently. A timeline helps identify agreements, gaps, and conflicts without prematurely deciding which source is correct.
Non-Compete Investigations: Start With the Factual Question
A restrictive-covenant dispute often raises factual questions about employment, competitive business activity, or relationships. The investigator’s role is to document relevant conduct for counsel.
Non-Solicitation Concerns: Organizing the Available Facts
A departing employee and a lost client may be connected, but the timing alone does not establish solicitation. Begin by separating documented contact from suspicion.
Public Records Research for Commercial Litigation
Public records can identify entities, property interests, litigation history, and business affiliations. Their usefulness depends on accurate matching and careful attention to what a record actually says.
Executive Background Checks in Florida: Pre-Hire and Pre-Deal Due Diligence
Before a C-suite hire, board appointment, partnership or acquisition, Florida businesses and their counsel need verified facts. What an executive background investigation covers and the FCRA, DPPA and GLBA rules that shape it.
Surveillance
Surveillance Objectives for Business Litigation
Surveillance is most useful when observable activity can answer a defined question. It cannot explain every motive, private conversation, or business relationship.
What a Surveillance Observation Can—and Cannot—Show
A photograph can establish that something was visible at a particular moment. It may not establish ownership, intent, the content of a conversation, or the meaning of a relationship.
Planning Multi-Day Surveillance Without Losing Focus
Several days of observation can reveal a pattern that a single visit would miss, but additional time should serve a clear question. Repeating an unproductive schedule without review can waste resources.
Documenting Public-Facing Business Activity
Signs, operating hours, customer traffic, and publicly visible activity can help clarify how a business presents itself and operates at a location. Each observation needs context.
Vendor Fraud
Investigating Suspected Vendor Fraud
Unusual invoices, inconsistent vendor information, or undisclosed relationships can justify a closer look. None of these indicators, by itself, establishes fraud.
Vendor Ownership Research and Conflicts of Interest
A vendor’s trading name may differ from its legal entity. Understanding that distinction helps avoid confusing unrelated businesses or overlooking a relevant affiliation.
Invoice Irregularities: A Practical Fact-Finding Checklist
Duplicate amounts, vague descriptions, and inconsistent supporting documents can create questions for a business review. A focused checklist helps keep the investigation tied to specific transactions.
Verifying a Vendor’s Operating Location
A mailing address, registered-agent address, and operating location can be different. A discrepancy may be ordinary or may warrant further inquiry, depending on the representation at issue.
Compliance
Employee Misconduct Investigations: Define the Scope First
An internal concern can quickly expand into unrelated questions. A written scope keeps the work focused on the reported conduct, relevant period, and sources that may clarify it.
Interview Planning for Internal Compliance Reviews
An internal interview plan should help reviewers understand the sequence of events and the basis of each person’s account. It should not assume the allegation is already established.
Separating Allegations, Evidence, and Findings
These three categories serve different purposes. An allegation identifies a concern. Evidence provides information about it. A finding explains what the available information supports.
Supporting a Compliance Audit With Field Investigation
An audit may identify a question that cannot be resolved from records alone. Field investigation can help examine a specific location, practice, relationship, or representation.
Handling Conflicting Accounts in an Internal Investigation
Different accounts do not necessarily mean someone is deliberately misleading the reviewer. Memory, vantage point, timing, and access to information can all affect what a person reports.
Executive Background Checks in Florida: Pre-Hire and Pre-Deal Due Diligence
Before a C-suite hire, board appointment, partnership or acquisition, Florida businesses and their counsel need verified facts. What an executive background investigation covers and the FCRA, DPPA and GLBA rules that shape it.
Intellectual Property
Intellectual Property Investigations: Documenting Suspected Misuse
Suspected unauthorized use of a business asset raises questions about who is involved, what is being displayed or distributed, and when the activity occurred.
Piracy Concerns: Building a Clear Evidence Log
An online listing can change or disappear. An evidence log helps keep the observed material connected to its source and the date it was documented.
Trade-Secret Concerns After an Employee Departure
An employee departure may prompt questions about information use, new business affiliations, or competitive activity. A suspicion should be translated into specific facts that can be checked.
Illustrative Scenarios
Illustrative Scenario: Reviewing a Questionable Vendor Relationship
This fictional example illustrates an investigative process. It is not a MAYN client case or a claim about an actual result. A company notices that invoices from a new vendor contain inconsistent business details.
Illustrative Scenario: Investigating Suspected Client Solicitation
This fictional scenario explains how a matter could be scoped. It does not describe a real client, lawsuit, or outcome. A business loses several customers after an employee joins another company.
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Help a colleague prepare a clearer investigative assignment. Share on LinkedIn · Share by emailThese educational resources are general information, not legal advice. Illustrative scenarios are fictional examples, not client testimonials or reported case results.