Divorce Strategy: Evaluating the Pros & Cons of Hiring a Private Investigator for Your Divorce

If your spouse is acting suspiciously, being dishonest, or hiding assets, you may be wondering if you should hire a private investigator.

Private investigators gather, analyze, and report information to clients and their lawyers regarding legal or personal matters. Not everyone will benefit from a private investigator's involvement in a divorce case, but some can and do!

Knowing when or if you should hire a private investigator in a family law case can be difficult to figure out, especially in North Carolina, which is a ‘no-fault’ divorce state. Many clients, in the heat of the moment, feel compelled to hire a PI to gather proof of their spouses’ activities, not realizing that such evidence often won’t impact their case. It’s crucial to consult with an attorney to determine if a PI is necessary for your situation, but more on that later.

While most family law cases do not benefit from hiring a PI, there are a few specific scenarios where they can be valuable:

Alimony Implications

In North Carolina, if the spouse seeking alimony has had an affair, they are barred from receiving alimony unless the supporting spouse has cheated as well. If alimony isn’t an issue in your case, then spending more on a private investigator to prove an affair may not be worth it. However, it might give you some personal peace of mind, and it can help you if you are seeking to sue the person your spouse had an affair with for alienation of affection or criminal conversation.

Child Custody Cases

If one parent believes the other to be unfit for custody or dangerous to the children, a PI can be very helpful. Their findings often rely upon more than “he said/she said” testimony, and they are certainly better than calling your children as witnesses in the case.

Uncovering Hidden Assets

PIs have the tools and skillset to uncover concealed money, properties, debts, and more that one spouse may be hiding.

How a Private Investigator Might Help Your Case

If one of the above scenarios applies to your situation, private investigators can be an invaluable asset in a divorce, using their skills to document behaviors such as erratic driving with a child in the car or potential substance abuse issues. In cases involving financial discrepancies, forensic private investigators can investigate bank and credit card statements to uncover expenses related to affairs, addiction issues, gambling, or other concerning behaviors.

A private investigator’s ability to testify in court as a neutral third party makes the evidence more credible, usually more so than the involved parties themselves. Having documentation from a professional enables the courts to connect the dots more effectively, strengthening a case against your spouse. Courts tend to be more skeptical of claims made by a party involved in the dispute compared to the proof provided by an actual private investigator because PIs are required to uphold strict standards and lawful evidence collection. This can help tip the scales in your favor if the evidence was gathered by the books.

How a Private Investigator Might Hurt Your Case

On the other hand, hiring a private investigator can also jeopardize your case if it isn’t handled legally and ethically. There are specific state laws (which can be reviewed here) that a private investigator is required to follow. Any surveillance obtained illegally is considered inadmissible in court. If you are aware of the illegal surveillance, it could expose you to criminal charges, civil fines, and even potential lawsuits if the surveillance is deemed to have caused emotional distress. Therefore, if you’re going to hire a private investigator, it’s crucial to ensure that they are ethical. Crossing legal boundaries can cause you to end up with more problems than you had to begin with and less money in your pocket to handle them.

Another factor to consider is how hiring a private investigator can affect your relationship with your spouse. Think about if you were in their shoes and discovered that they hired someone to watch your every move. That would probably make you less friendly and unwilling to cooperate on matters like custody, child support, and more. If they become aware of the investigation, you’ve now introduced distrust and animosity into that relationship, which can be extremely hard to come back from. When you share children together, a lack of trust and transparency seriously impacts your ability to co-parent with your ex, and that ultimately harms your children.

Furthermore, suppose your private investigator comes up empty-handed. In that case, your spouse now has ammunition to show that any claims made about them on your end aren’t accurate and that you are paranoid, which can weaken your case significantly.

Lastly, but most importantly, the stress and worry involved in surveillance can take a toll on your peace of mind.

All of this assumes that you actually need a private investigator for your case, which is not the case for a large percentage of North Carolina family law issues. Hiring a private investigator when your situation doesn’t call for it can be counterproductive. You risk wasting valuable time and financial resources on services that ultimately won’t benefit your case.

Even if your case could benefit from a private investigator, it’s still important to weigh the pros and cons and see if the benefits outweigh the risks involved. It’s essential to work closely with your attorney to evaluate whether a private investigator is truly necessary. By doing so, you can avoid unnecessary expenses and focus on more effective strategies to support your case.

Before Hiring a Private Investigator, Talk to an Attorney!

Whether or not a private investigator will help or hurt a divorce case depends on your circumstances; every single divorce is different. At Triangle Smart Divorce, we familiarize ourselves with the details of your case in addition to your goals post-divorce to determine if hiring a private investigator is in your best interests. You may have a friend or family member who’s hired one in the past, and it worked out great, but what helped them could be what hurts you and your chances of reaching a favorable outcome.

In almost all family law situations, it’s helpful to have your attorney hire a private investigator on your behalf because that is protected as a “work product” and is not initially discoverable when you’re going through your divorce case with your spouse. This means that the information gathered by the PI is protected until you and your lawyer decide that you intend to use it in your court case.

Before hiring an investigator, you need to understand if what you are trying to prove or disprove requires a private investigator and cannot be accomplished through any other means. One of our experienced divorce attorneys can assist you with this, making sure you understand the boundaries for surveillance and more.

Tips for Storing Evidence

If you do go through with hiring a private investigator, whether through your attorney or on your own, we recommend the following to keep the evidence you receive protected:

• Keep it in a safe and secure place. Consider creating a new email account and avoid using other email or social accounts that your spouse has access to.
• Don’t use your work computer for divorce matters, as it could be subpoenaed.
• Store any evidence in your iCloud in case it gets lost or is intentionally deleted by your spouse. But don’t do this if your spouse shares your iCloud. Find another cloud provider and open a new account with them using your new email address.
• Keep your evidence organized; it can save your attorney time in the long run, which saves you money.
• Don’t tell people you’re working with a private investigator or that you have evidence.
• Don’t post about your case or any evidence online. When the time is right, you’ll be able to use it if it helps you.

How Triangle Smart Divorce Can Help You

If divorce is on your radar and you’re wondering whether you should hire a private investigator, call Triangle Smart Divorce to request a consultation today. You can walk us through your goals so we can help you visualize what your life might look like if you stay or if you go and determine whether a private investigator is the right choice for you. We can even handle the hiring process to take one more thing off your plate and protect the information as a “work product.” We understand how delicate and personal divorce matters are, and deciding whether to involve a private investigator could make or break the outcome of your case. Let us take it from here! If you’re ready to learn about your next steps, call now.