efc:

Actually I am not the trend on this. If you go back several years of F&A Investigator magazines, you will see articles by Terry Dawn- Hewitt that this has been coming for a while now.

I have only on ONE occasion ever recommended going after a PI for screwing up so badly. The case was several years ago and was adjudicated, at which time the defendant was found Not Guilty on all charges. The former defendant decided to pursue this issue, but was too late in filing against the person due to a State of Limitations issue.

If you are talking about licensed PI's, CFEI's and/or CFI's, then I do not have any knowledge of who you are talking about or circumstances surrounding this. I also would then question which "client" you are talking about as I have over 1000 clients in 5 countries in my database.

If you are speaking of the person I am talking about, then the person is not certified and stated he will never be certified as a fire investigator because then he would have to adhere to NFPA 921 as well as get licensed as a PI. The ones posted were only the tip of the iceberg with this "he" person, but I didn't want to bore everyone here with all the stuff, like making false statements, interfering with investigations, contacting claimants who he was aware are represented by counsel when he is representing a co-defendant, and the list goes on and on.

You stated : "Your own statement gives credence to the complaints in that what does attacking ABC for violating an in-house policy have to do with the quality of the investigators investigation." If the person is not licensed as a PI and not certified by NAFI or IAAI, and does not follow even some of the most basic principals of NFPA 921, then that directly goes to the credibility of their investigations. I don't mean nit-pick point by point, but when you fail to interview witnesses, fail to obtain fire reports and photographs, do not secure important evidence in the case, then yes, you should be help liable for your $#$#$-ups.

I did not say there was a Court order, the Cease & Desist Order is from the Governmental Agency which legally handles the licensing of PIs in this state. They have an active file on this guy and waiting on physical proof of his next incursion into the state before filing civil and criminal charges.

Hey, I understand your concerns, I truly do. In fact, I was once asked to provide my E&O Insurance information from the ABC Insurance carrier. I short stopped this by informing them if they wished to proceed, then I would be retaining counsel and going after a Breach of Contract for not allowing me the complete access to important file information that very probably would have changed my opinions in the case. Counsel for ABC Insurance was completely unaware that the adjuster had signed a contract before hiring this firm [as stated and filed under Oregon Law 703.450(8) ], and once a copy was received, counsel dropped all further proceedings.

BY-THE-WAY: THANKS JOHN AND ATS LABS FOR THE SAMPLE CONTRACT. THE MODIFIED VERSION HAS COME IN VERY HANDY AS YOU CAN SEE.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/15/2008 06:35PM by Chris Bloom, CJBFireConsultant.