Last week an attorney called me about a defendant they couldn’t serve after six attempts. Three old addresses. Two disconnected numbers. Every lead looked good on paper but went nowhere. They had already spent hours trying to track him down themselves. We ran a skip trace and a license plate reader report, tied him to a relative’s address, confirmed the residence, and we served him the next morning. Here’s what I’ve learned after years in this field: skip tracing isn’t the be

Every few months someone in the industry asks the same question: “ Can we just use a drone to scout properties or even serve papers? ” It sounds efficient. Fly over the house, confirm occupancy, drop the papers, maybe save a trip and personal interaction. But the reality is a lot less exciting and a lot more legal. First, the basics. In the U.S., you’re generally allowed to fly a drone over private property as long as you follow Federal Aviation Administration rules. Homeowne

You’re preparing for a hearing or deposition and realize the one person who can confirm the facts is missing, hard to reach, or suddenly unsure about what they remember. Now you’re chasing phone numbers, old addresses, and half leads instead of focusing on legal strategy. That’s usually when people think, “Maybe we should hire an investigator.” In reality, that call should happen much earlier. Locating witnesses isn’t just running a database search. People move, change number