PIAVA Comment to WSJ Law Blog About Court Research

From our good friends at VCOG, http://www.opengovva.org—

Reference to a lot of good court online sites for research.

WSJ Law Blog News You Can Use:

We’ve always found the patchwork of online services from our 50 state-court systems maddening. The National Center for State Courts provides this helpful site which puts links to all the state courts in one place. But we still want to understand which states have great online court resources and which ones don’t. Law Blog readers, can you help us compile a list in the comment section below?

PIAVA made a comment to the WSJ Law Blog.  Read it along with other good court sites Here

O.K.–Google This! Solve crime

Okay.  You gotta love this one.

You know the story: John and Anne married for many years.  John goes canoeing–doesn’t return. Police find canoe overturned in river/ocean, but never find John.  Anne gets John declared dead–collects insurance.  Makes new home in Panama to grieve.  We are professional investigators.  We have heard all this before.  It is the same old story.

But how do you solve the mystery?  Well, you google “John, Anne, Panama” and you get a picutre of dead John and his wife Anne in Panama–whoa, John is alive, the police say? 

Yeah, read about it Telegraph UK

Virginia Chief Justice Son Sentenced

The VLW Blog (Virginia Lawyer Week) posted today that Leroy R. Hassell Jr., 19 year old son of Virginia’s Chief Justice, Hon. Leroy R. Hassell, was sentenced to 16 months in jail for failing to complete the 200 hours of community service imposed as part of convictions for embezzlement, unlawful entry and trespassing, and forging documents saying that he had completed the community service. See VLW.

The Richmond Times has full story–see Richmond Times.

Of course, Leroy Hassell, Jr. is 19 years old, and made some unfortunate choices.  Justice Hassell and family, I’m sure, would have perfered the young man made better choices.  But, young Hassell is an adult, but he is not fully mature.  He will have this matter with him the rest of his life.

I am sorry, your Honor.

Bill Lowrance

President PIAVA

president@piava.org

Private Investigators Indicted for Pretext Fraud–Lawyers Probed in Pretext Theft

Ten private investigators were indicted on December 5, 2007,in Seattle, WA, by the U.S. Attorney’s office.  The ten are:

Emilio A. Torrella, Brandy Torrella, both from Belfair, WA. BNT Investigations, Steven W. Berwik, Belfair, WA, BNT Investigations, Victoria J. Tade, C.I. Inc., San Diego, CA,  Megan M. Ososke, P.I. & Information Services, Beaverton, OR, Robert Grieve and Ziad N. Sakhleh, Robert Grieve International, Houston, TX,  Patrick A. Bombino and Esaun G. Pinto , AAA Allstate Investigations, Brooklyn, NY, and Darci P. Templeton, Houston, TX.  They were charged with Conspiracy to Defraud, Wire Fraud, Fraudulent Elicitation of Social Security Administration Information, Solicitation of Federal Tax Information, and Aggravated Identity Theft–see the Pretext Indictment Dec. 2007.

The ABA Journal Law News reports that the investigation may involve lawyers across the country as many businesses and lawyers hired BNT Investigations to obtain confidential information by pretext.  BNT Investigations obtain confidential information for as many as 12,000 individuals involved in bankruptcies, law suits, divorces and collection efforts.  BNT services were utilized by attorneys, insurance companies and collection companies to investigate the backgrounds of opposing parties and witnesses, and to uncover assets or income for satisfaction of debts, according to the indictment. See Aba Journal. See other stories Seattle Times

The alleged defendants collected information via pretext from the I.R.S., Social Security Administration, various State Unemployment Insurance Departments, private financial institutions, banks, pharmacies and hospitals.  The alleged defendants fraudulently posed as the individuals about who information was sought. 

Particularly disturbing to me is the pretexting of the I.R.S., Social Security Administration and medical facilities.  Clearly obtaining confidential information from the entities is protected by specific laws.  I advise that readers look over the indictment carefully.  Professional investigators do not violate the law to obtain information, and that should be clearly explained to every potential client.  The alleged defendants, the indictment reads, collected federal tax return information (clearly confidential), Federal employment tax records, bank account information, employment earnings from Social Security, prescription and medical information.

If attorneys or other professional investigators used such pretexting methods to collect such information for their cases, there may be serious criminal, professional and ethical implications.  Gathering such information is not worth your license to practice your profession whether you are a professional investigator or an attorney in private practice.

Keep your professions legal and honorable.

Bill Lowrance

President PIAVA

president@piava.org