When Should a Solicitor Instruct an Investigator?

Before proceedings

Pre-action intelligence can help assess parties, connected entities, commercial context, asset indicators and the proportionality of litigation.

During a dispute

Research may support chronology development, witness or background context, company mapping, location questions and claim testing.

Enforcement and recovery

Asset and entity research can help decide whether further legal recovery steps appear proportionate.

Professional boundaries

Investigation supports legal strategy but does not replace legal advice or the solicitor’s evidential and disclosure obligations.

In commercial litigation, early intelligence can also help assess recoverability and proportionality before significant further cost is committed. The solicitor remains responsible for legal strategy, evidential use and disclosure obligations; the investigator provides researched factual material within the agreed scope.

The useful question is whether independent fact-finding can resolve an issue that legal research, disclosure or the client’s own records cannot. Instructions may include locating a party or witness, examining corporate relationships, researching asset indicators, testing a commercial narrative or developing chronology around disputed events.

Common private-investigator instructions from solicitors