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Components of a Truthful Complaint

By Philip A. Becnel IV
July 30, 2012

I'm a private investigator who has a niche: giving my opinion about complainants' veracity to plaintiffs' counsel, who rely on my opinion to decide whether to take cases on a contingent-fee basis. I do this by interviewing complainants in great detail, analyzing their body language and carefully scrutinizing the elements of their claims.

If you've represented companies for any length of time, you've received internal complaints about a variety of workplace wrongdoings, such as harassment, discrimination, and other alleged misdeeds. Your job in part is to limit the company's liability resulting from the bad actions of its employees, and to do this you must investigate each complaint. Your recommendation will be based on the facts uncovered during the investigation. However, documentary evidence is not always helpful, because performance evaluations are subjective and thieves avoid paper trails. In the absence of clear evidence substantiating or refuting the complaint, “the facts” are sometimes a judgment call based on the perceived credibility of the complainant.

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