Creating Our Public Face

By Grace Elting Castle, CLI

The investigative report---an invaluable marketing tool or the curse of death? Each investigator makes this fateful decision, and unfortunately, it is too often a decision that is made in complete oblivion to the potentially disastrous consequences.

Over the years, in more seminars and meetings than I care to remember, I have listened to investigators expound upon the importance of recorded statements, of "dressing the part," of the perfect pretext, or, in more recent times, the absolute necessity of computers, databases and every conceivable electronic tool. A few have written, or spoken, about taking statements. Seldom have I heard, or read, of the importance of the investigative report to the success of an investigator’s business.

In the beginning:
The neophyte investigator, preparing to open a business, must consider the report as one of the most important marketing tools for the fledgling company. After the initial marketing has taken place, the letterhead and business cards are printed, the phones are in, the computer is installed and programmed and the first case comes in, the report becomes king. The marketing effort which brought in this first case may have been the most brilliant presentation known to man; the investigation conducted may rank right up there with work done by the nation’s most renowned gumshoes, but if the report is not professional, accurate, properly presented, and timely, there may never be another assignment from that hard won client!

If you are just setting up your business, please take the time to decide how your reports will be presented--the format, the style--right down to the type size and font. Don’t leave anything to chance. Your report should be as instantly recognizable to a client as your business card and letterhead. The format alone should tell them that it is your report. The presentation and content of the very first report received from you should tell the client the following about you and your business:

• You are a professional who cares about your work product;
• You know what’s important and how to present it in a concise, usable manner;
• You understand the case and what the client needs to know;
• You are interested in keeping this client;
• You understand that what the client needs is a report on the investigation, rather than on how important you think you are.

The format may have to be adjusted over the first few months as you begin to learn more about the client’s needs and your own abilities, but presenting a strong, professional report from the very beginning will be the best marketing tool your company can ever possess. Always be open to suggestions and critiques from your clients, keeping in mind that their comments may be coming from having only known investigative reports from prior investigators who thought they had to expound endlessly upon every detail, always being careful to insert their every sneeze into the report. You may have to re-educate your client to the value of having the details presented in a new way, sans personal glorification.

"I’m already established, so what does it matter?":
For the established investigator who has not given serious thought to the presentation of the investigative report, or who has always been "too busy to make it fancy," ---I can’t express this strongly enough: Take the time to review your reports. Check to see if they live up to the five previously listed criteria. What do your reports say about your professionalism and expertise?

Then, ask yourself these questions:

• Does this report show me to be concerned about my client?
• Does this report contain misspelled words, incorrect grammar or incomplete sentences which make no sense, or have I provided concise, clean, copy with valuable information?
• Do I have difficulty finding the report on the "busy" letterhead that shouts to the world how important I think I am, or is my report obviously the most important information on the page?

Negative answers to the second and third questions are easily remedied. With modern computer programs, there is never an excuse for a misspelled word. Windows 95 and other programs now also have a grammar check. (Be careful, they can give you some very strange choices!) Unless you are on your deathbed, an investigative report should never leave your office without either your review and approval, or that of a trusted colleague who is familiar with all aspects of the situation being reported. If there is time, read the report aloud--there’s no better way to catch errors, misstatements and the occasional nonsensical sentence that has resulted from misunderstood dictation. The "busy" letterhead problem is easily solved--either you re-design your current letterhead, or if you love it passionately, design a simple letterhead specifically for your reports. Your cover letter can be done on your beloved, "look at me" original letterhead.

Keeping it simple:
There is, to put it bluntly, no reason to ramble on and on in an investigative report! What the client needs are facts, just the facts, not a novel. Reports are not novels. They are not essays. They are not our opportunity to expound and to show off. They are our opportunity to give a client the facts in the most concise, usable form possible.

We are, of course, hired for our expertise and often it is vital that the client have our personal "take" on a situation or witness. We haven’t completely satisfied our role as investigators if we neglect to mention to the attorney-client that the witness will not be likely to impress the jury. Likewise, we have failed in our mission if we don’t report that our client’s client has a seamy background which involves people who may be called as witnesses by the prosecution or the defense in the civil case. But we must be wise enough to know how, when and where to report that information. Just throwing it into the middle of a lengthy, rambling report nearly assures that our client will be too bored to read that far into our masterpiece. Generally, this information is presented in a report that is separate from the facts of the investigation.

Too often I have read reports from investigators in a format similar to the following (any resemblance to anything a reader might have written is purely coincidental!):

Well, first I would really have preferred to have had PARAGRAPHS in this report, with proper sentences and correctly spelled words, as well as having the billing statement be a completely separate document, presented professionally. (No, I do not pay $550 for two knocks upon a door, so please don’t call for such an assignment!)

But of even more importance, the writer of this report is shouting to the client that there is no professional expertise in this company, there is no understanding of what is needed, and probably a misunderstanding of the importance of the assignment, as well as evidence that this investigator does not listen to what is said.

In many instances, it is just as easy to pick up the phone and call the client for further instructions. If, for some reason, it is very important to document every activity, do it concisely, and without flourish.

Never, ever, include billing information in an activity report! It may be necessary to provide a brief status report to a client in which the activities to date are detailed, and a "bill to date" estimate is provided, but that is an entirely separate report from what was being attempted in my prior example.

If my original assignment to this fictitious investigator had been to interview the resident, my immediate reaction to this report would be one of extreme thankfulness that the person was not home! I must have been impressed with the investigator’s marketing pitch, or had received a recommendation from a valued colleague (who is now on my "list"), but based on this report, I would find another investigator to complete this task.

Just as I can tell more about a job applicant’s personality, expertise and professionalism from the cover letter than from the resume, the investigator’s report tells me more than I’ll ever learn from a brochure or personal sales pitch. Over the years I have retained investigators from throughout the United States and even when they were highly recommended I held my breath until that first report, whether written or oral, came into my office. Timeliness is important, of course, but the report tells us whether this investigator understands the assignment, takes pride in doing a good job, and knows how to put the information together in a usable format.

So too, our own clients may feel frustrated when trying to read our reports. If they have to wade through run-on sentences, full block reports with no paragraphs, misspelled and misused words and confusing information, we will be quickly replaced by a well organized, conscientious investigator who has taken the time to be professional.

One well-written report, packed with useful, pertinent information can do more marketing, promote more goodwill, and more quickly establish a reputation of professionalism for our company than will the many thousands of dollars poured into fancy informational packets and brochures.

This one report may be handled by an attorney-client, the secretary or legal assistant, the case paralegal, the prosecutor and the prosecutor’s assistants and investigators (or the civil defense team) and potentially, even the judge, jury, maybe some police officers, FBI or other agency personnel, and in this period of history, quite possibly by the media. Each will make a judgment about our expertise and professionalism based on this one report. Each is a potential client or referral agent for our company! Or, each can cause snickering behind our back. Since we have no way to judge which report will travel that path, it behooves us to prepare every report as if it were to be handed to a potential client as a sample of our company’s expertise. When reviewing your reports, imagine them blown up to 30 x 40 inches for a trial exhibit---is this the public "face" that you wish to put forth for your company, or does it need some fine tuning?

The following is a brief example of a usable format which has been successfully used in both civil cases for the plaintiff, and criminal defense cases. Based on a system of reporting first explained to me by NALI’s Past Region VII Director Harold Nash, this simplified reporting format can be modified not only to fit every case and situation, but can be individualized for use by every investigation firm. Work with it; personalize it to suit your needs and those of your clients, -- remember that it’s speaking for your professionalism and that you want your clients to be positively influenced by the report.

With a similar format, you can expand, delete, and modify to your heart’s content, but you have effectively cut out the verbosity that makes so many investigative reports cumbersome. If there is a reason to say that the phone rang twenty-two times before anyone answered it, then do so, but otherwise it is sufficient to say that Ms. Halliday was interviewed by phone on a certain day and at a certain time. If she were a willing character witness, there would be reason to go into more detail about background, relationships and other information that might lead to her being discredited by the defense. Or, if there seems a possibility that her hostility might lead to her being interviewed by the defense, your interview and subsequent report might be more detailed and lengthy. The preceding sample was just that---a sample to help investigators to begin thinking about ways to simplify their reports.

You may have noticed that I used the word "Halliday" numerous times. I deliberately avoid the use of pronouns as much as possible. Investigative reports don’t have to be written like novels. They don’t have to "flow" and be comfortable to read. They must convey facts in the most concise, simple manner possible---without providing a potential misinterpretation which the use of personal pronouns is wont to do.

For example, if we were to re-write the sentence of the previous report example, using personal pronouns, we might end up a confusing mess like this:

This is an extreme example, but it is surprising how many reports are written with no regard to the fact that the reader won’t know what the investigator knows, unless it is spelled out succinctly. Pronouns do not promote clarity. Read your reports carefully to see if it is absolutely clear to the reader (your client and all those other potential readers) what happened, to whom, and who did what!

And remember, as you are doing your investigations, keep in mind that you have to gather enough information to guarantee that your most effective marketing tool, your "public face" will be a shining example of your company’s expertise and professionalism.

© 1997 Grace Elting Castle

(First published in The Legal Investigator magazine, November 1997)
 

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