What We Do

We provide investigational support to legal counsel in the following areas:

• Fraud : Insider Trading, Bribery, Secret Commissions

• Theft: Inventory, Data, Intellectual Property

• Harassment - Sexual, Workplace

• Litigation: Wrongful dismissal, eDiscovery, Anton Pillar Orders

• IT Forensics: Recovery of erased data, Email analysis

• Workplace Substance Abuse

• Asset Tracing and Recovery

• Background Investigations

• Forensic Accounting

• Drug Awareness Training

• Workplace/Sexual Harassment Training

Who We Are

Our practice brings together qualified investigative professionals, from a variety of disciplines, who are able to provide a timely and effective response to workplace issues, as and when they occur.

Our investigators are retired law enforcement officers from the RCMP and municipal police agencies. They have significant experience in conducting investigations in both the private and public sectors and have conducted several thousand suspect and witness interviews. They have also been qualified in the Ontario courts as expert witnesses.

Our forensic IT professionals participate in workplace investigations on a daily basis. They have the experience and specialized training to conduct forensic reviews of IT infrastructures and provide evidence in a usable form. Our technicians are skilled in evidence gathering and are qualified to testify as to the method by which it was recovered.

How We Do It

We have found that most workplace investigations are conducted in two phases. The initial phase consists of the following steps:

• Consulting with the client and external legal counsel

• Taking appropriate action to remove or sequester the employee(s)from the workplace in order to limit the damage or loss

• Conducting interviews

• Gathering documentary and IT evidence

• Quantifying the damage or loss

• Preparing a report to justify termination or discipline

In the second phase, once the employee has been terminated or disciplined, we continue to support the client and their counsel by:

• Conducting physical surveillance

• Tracing missing assets

• Liaising with insurance companies

• Supporting counsel in litigation to recover assets

Although it is rare for clients to involve the police, in the event that they wish to pursue criminal charges against a former employee, we will liaise with law enforcement and provide them with a comprehensive brief of evidence that will minimise their need to re-investigate.

Common Mistakes

It has been our experience that many corporate clients, when faced with a serious workplace misconduct issue, typically make the same serious errors:

1. Failing to immediately seek advice from counsel
   
   It is our practice to work directly with external legal counsel on all investigations. We do NOT take any investigative action until the client has consulted with counsel.

2. Conducting suspect or witness interviews themselves
   
   We have found that, when misconduct is reported or detected, clients often take matters into their own hands, conducting interviews and attempting to gather evidence on their own.
   
   Interviews are the most important part of any investigation. Conducting an interview without proper preparation or training can have a negative impact on an investigation, often creating problems that cannot be remedied.

3. Using unqualified staff to conduct forensic IT investigations
   
   The analysis of laptop and desktop computers, Blackberries or other devices, as well as client servers, is an intrinsic part of most workplace investigations. We regularly encounter situations where clients have tasked their own in-house IT department with gathering evidence from these sources.
   
   In-house IT personnel usually have no knowledge of the proper methods for gathering, preserving and analysing IT evidence. Unless IT evidence is collected in the proper fashion, there can be a loss of continuity and the evidence can be tainted or destroyed.