{"id":4608,"date":"2011-10-10T16:04:12","date_gmt":"2011-10-10T20:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=4608"},"modified":"2014-12-24T13:19:49","modified_gmt":"2014-12-24T18:19:49","slug":"preliminary-investigation-using-the-internet-to-snoop-on-your-enemy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=4608","title":{"rendered":"Preliminary Investigation: Using the internet to investigate your enemy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou\u2019ve never read it?\u201d Gabriel asked.<\/span>
\n \u201cNo, never.\u201d<\/span>
\n \u201cI find that hard to believe.\u201d<\/span>
\n \u2018Why?\u201d<\/span>
\n \u201cBecause you were once the most famous investigative reporter in Russia.\u201d<\/span>
\n \u201cAnd?\u201d<\/span>
\n \u201cInvestigative reporters are natural snoops.\u201d<\/span>
\n \u201cLike spies?\u201d<\/span>
\n \u201cYes, like spies.\u201d<\/span>
\n \u201cI don\u2019t read other people\u2019s mail. It\u2019s unseemly.\u201d<\/span>
\n \u2013 Daniel Silva, The Defector<\/span><\/p>\n

Toward the end of my tenure working for lawyers, I decided to become a private investigator. One P.I. I knew warned me it wasn\u2019t glamorous. \u201cIt\u2019s mostly searching on the computer.\u201d That was fine with me. I\u2019d been living in glamor for all of my working life. I was not looking to run up my glamor score.<\/p>\n

Although I did not become a P.I., in certain ways I did. I\u2019d learned how to search records. I\u2019d learned how to snoop. I used what I\u2019d learned to develop my case against the Skush-O\u2019Briens.<\/p>\n

Previously I\u2019ve written about searching various web sites for information. Now you should research, i.e., dig into the person and people you will be suing. So here the first lesson in how to snoop on-line:<\/p>\n

Google<\/strong>.\u00a0 Google the name of your enemy\u2013whether individual(s) or company\u2013+ \u201clawsuits.\u201d If you\u2019re not lucky, you\u2019ll get too many hits on google to make this a productive search. But if you do find your enemy linked to a lawsuit, print out the info.<\/p>\n

Hey, though, let\u2019s not be lazy with google. I\u2019ve already characterized it as the largest M.O.P. (mess of papers) in the universe. You never know what you\u2019re going to find, or whether it\u2019s accurate information. I\u2019ve mentioned a friend who kept checking into Wikipedia for her own entry, because it had essential facts wrong. She repeatedly corrected the mistakes but whenever she checked back she found that someone had restored the wrong information.<\/p>\n

Start with google, though (which will immediately give you a link to Wikipedia, if the person you\u2019re searching is important enough to have an entry). Sometimes you\u2019ll find interesting things. But you have to exhibit a huge amount of patience to scroll down through every mention of your opponent, and click on links that seem intriguing. And the juiciest links always seem to be toward the end of the long google list.<\/p>\n

I had patience a few months ago, when I googled my defendants (not for the first time\u2013you have to keep up with this every couple of months). Their names popped up in connection with the Department of State of New York. Because they had failed to file annual tax statements for the co-op, New York State had dissolved the Little Crooked House Tenants Corp.<\/p>\n

Not good. Bad, in fact. Bad for the defendants who\u2019d like to represent themselves as responsible corporate executives. The print-out of the Department of State notification became an important exhibit at the defendants’ depositions.<\/p>\n

Next: Fine-tuning your snoop by using the U.S. court systems<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou\u2019ve never read it?\u201d Gabriel asked. \u201cNo, never.\u201d \u201cI find that hard to believe.\u201d \u2018Why?\u201d \u201cBecause you were once the most famous investigative reporter in Russia.\u201d \u201cAnd?\u201d \u201cInvestigative reporters are natural snoops.\u201d \u201cLike spies?\u201d \u201cYes, like spies.\u201d \u201cI don\u2019t read … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1175],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-facts-of-life"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t