Attorneys' Investigative Consultants

I'm going to break your question down into two parts:

Professional investigators, work with these things every day and have the benefit of informal exchanges between colleagues. Some PIs go so far as to maintain a "burn list". Any source, including computerized databases, that makes it to this list, because they provided bad information, will never be used again. A PI has too much to lose by dealing casually with data purveyors and information brokers. Often, PIs will "vet" sources with known information to test the reliability and accuracy of information that is provided.

No public record database is 100% reliable. The reason is simple. It takes time to input data into the database. For example, if I were to sell my house today, it could days or even weeks for the database to show that event. Until that time, the information pertaining to the ownership of my house, would be wrong. Most databases do not reveal the age of their data. They want the user to assume that it is hot off the presses. If you entered a database and a caveat at the top said, "Caution this database was last brought up to date 2 years ago.", you might be reluctant to use it, in fact, you might not use it at all! So they say nothing and use the public perception that computerized database = reliable database, to market their sometimes very stale inventory.

Recently a lawyer retained us to provide investigative support for a case she planned to litigate. As part of her briefing to us, she provided us with a list of five properties in Clark County, Nevada that the SUBJECT of our investigation owned. During our preliminary work-up on this case we searched for Clark County real estate owed by our SUBJECT. We found that there were currently only two parcels owned by SUBJECT rather than the five she told us about. The other three had at one time been owned by our SUBJECT, but had been sold more than two years ago. We compared notes. We knew at we had gotten our data directly from the Clark County Assessor, with whose database we were "on-line". Our lawyer friend maintained that she too was on-line with the Clark County Assessor. On closer examination, she noted that she got "on-line" through a widely used, highly regarded data gateway called Westlaw. So although she was on-line with Westlaw, she was not really on-line with the current Clark County Assessor database. Although she believed she was accessing the best available data, at least a part of what she had accessed was over two years old!

Even government owned public computer database records are subject to gross errors. We know of one State of Nevada database of over one million records that had the "city" spelled wrong more than 18% of the time! That means that the odds were almost one in five that you would get a wrong answer if you happened to use the name of the city in your search criteria!

What you really want to determine is his equity and any beneficial interest that he might have in real estate. (If he is named as the Beneficiary on a Deed of Trust or Mortgage, that could be worth real money, even though he owns no real estate!)

Learning that he owns a piece of real estate worth $10 million does you no good if that property is mortgaged up to the hilt and he has no equity in it.

Let's look at one possible scenario. He owns a piece of real estate in his own name, but he has no equity in it because it is mortgaged. That could be a legitimate mortgage or it could be a subterfuge to make the court think that he has no assets. It is the type of investigative problem that requires a trip to the Recorder's Office or Clerks Office where the property is located, by a PI who knows and understands real estate documents -- many do not.

Just because your PI is a retired detective from the local police department is no guarantee that he or she is qualified to run the search you need. Since real estate records are at the heart of your search, getting the right PI is critical. For a nominal fee, we will assist you in the screening process.

"He runs the business and works there full time. He brags to people in our religious community of his prosperity. He lies and tells the court that he hurt his back and cannot work - he is disabled."

Are my adoptive parents jealous or are they trying to protect me?

Is going on this quest going to damage my relationship with my adoptive parents?

Regardless of your adoptive parent's knowledge or motivation, your birth parents are a complete unknown. What if you find your birth mother and learn that she is a drug addict and a broken down prostitute? After you say "Hello!" and "All is forgiven!" What do you say, "How's tricks?"? What if you find your birth-father and learn that he is an habitual criminal who is doing 15 years for armed robbery of a convenience store. What do you have in common with him, your exciting visits to 7-11 stores?

What if your birth parents are good, decent, people who have built a whole new life since you were born -- people with children and grandchildren. Do you have a right to impose a new parameter on their family structure? Do you really expect them to be overjoyed to be reunited with you? Perhaps, but what if they make it clear that they want no part of you? How will that make you feel?

That kind of question must always be answered in the context of what we know in the situation at hand. In this case, the prognosis for success is very poor! You know where and when you were born, but that's all. You believe that if you (or your PI) could get into the archives of the hospital or the doctor who signed the birth certificate, you would be well on the road to accomplishing the mission. You are probably right, but you would still be a long way from reaching your goal. Depending on the PIs sources, launching a search of the archives could cost a fortune.

Let's assume you make it to that level. Now what do you look for? Remember, 24 years ago computerization was not as wide spread as it is today. So now you have to search a microfilm index of every patient that was in that hospital the year you were born. The problem is that such indices are almost always alphabetic. Since you do not have your birth-mother's last name and the indexing would not be by date, you will probably have to search the entire year and note each birth, both male and female. Before you could eliminate the males that were born you would have to check each record. That would not be any extra effort because you have to check each record to identify the mother of every female born the same day as you. Whether you find 2 or 50, you have to copy down every available bit of information  on each mother that gave birth that day.

Your continuing task now becomes one of eliminating names from the list you prepared. This has to be done with extreme care, lest you toss out the record of your birth. This alone could take weeks or months of expensive and time-consuming investigation. Assuming you have done everything right and have not literally thrown out the baby with the bath-water, you eventually have a "short list" that includes the name you are searching for. Only now, does your search for your birth-mother really begin. We all know that women get married and that names change, but depending upon how much data you were able to glean from your birth-mother's  hospital records (home addresses, social security number, date of birth, next of kin, etc.) your chances of success have improved radically. However, even now, you are faced with the very expensive prospect of having to locate and "check-out" every mother on your "short list". The cost of each of those searches could vary greatly depending on the birth-mother's name. If it is something like "Viara Vichigunov", you are not in bad shape, if it is a more common name, like, "Kim Smith", you are looking at a lot more expense!

My answer is that we would charge you a flat fee of $500, with our unique no-good no-pay guarantee.

We would give you a written contract  which would guarantee to locate either the birth-mother or the birth-father within an agreed upon time, or refund every penny of your $500! Go to our contingency locate contract.