Beneficiaries, Witnesses, Serving Documents & Debtors
Finance Companies And Mercantile Agents
March 24, 2022The Difference Between ‘Skip Tracing’ and ‘Locating’
March 26, 2022
- Beneficiaries – Probate wills and estates are legally binding documents that determine how your property will be distributed upon death. Probate is the legal process through which an executor distributes assets according to the deceased’s wishes. The Executor will be given a list of all beneficiaries and if they have not all been identified, located, and contacted within the expected date given, the missing beneficiary’s share is usually put into a Trust.
If a beneficiary cannot be found by the Executor within the expected date, the solicitor may inform the Executor of the Will that possibly a Private Investigator can assist. This is where Trace and Identify (Australia) excel at what they do. Lesley Craig has personally located missing beneficiaries for law firms within Australia and for companies in the U.S. and the U.K. as well as the Republic of Ireland. The skillset, perseverance, experience and first-hand knowledge of what to ask and what not to disclose is something only an experienced private investigator can carry out with no problems. There is a certain way of handling this kind of enquiry that sometimes the Executor has not time for and may not be inclined to carry out because of a possible family ‘fracture”. Each case is a delicate situation, as the mere mention of money to a relative of the beneficiary, can sometimes cause insurmountable problems that need not occur. The private Investigator has a Duty of Care not to mention anything to anyone regarding the enquiry, other than to the beneficiary themselves and only then they ask the beneficiary to phone the law firm and speak directly with the lawyer handling the case. However, if the Private Investigator can ascertain the date of birth, or some other means of correctly identifying the individual before they contact the law firm, this is preferable. In some cases, the beneficiary and their adult child have the same name e.g. Jonathan Brown Snr and Jonathan Brown Jnr and and it is imperative that the correct person is found so that they personally can contact the law firm. - Witnesses – We have at times been requested to track and trace, then confirm, the current location of a witness who was needed to testify in a court case. Witnesses are needed to be found for many reasons, including accidents, embezzlement cases, bashings, etc. etc. Our most famous case was a South Australian who witnessed a car accident in New York. Lesley CRAIG found the witness surfing at a seaside suburb in South Australia.
- Serving documents – Divorce papers, or any legal document to be served to an individual can be handled by us. If document is to be served in another state other than Queensland, we have ethical, experienced agents in all States of Australia. Recently Lesley CRAIG successfully located an ethical, experienced Process Server/Private Investigator in the Philippines to serve papers for a local Brisbane law firm.
- Debtors – When an individual is owed a relatively small amount of money (for instance up to $20,000) it is recommended that they approach the Small Claims Court to put in a claim and the Small Claims Court will sort it for the client, however, if all available avenues are exhausted, and for the debts that are more than $20,000, it is recommended that the individual approach a private investigator and/or a solicitor at a reputable law firm and they in turn may (if coming to a dead end whilst endeavouring to locate the debtor) will contract a Private Investigator to become involved to trace and identify the person who owes the client that debt. We at Trace and Identify (Australia), even though based in Brisbane, have found debtors in every State of Australia, as well as internationally.