Use Cases Show How Attorneys in Different Practice Areas Strengthen Lawsuits With Data

Personal, business and alternative data holds a wealth of information for law firms. This includes personally identifiable information, such as email and physical addresses, phone numbers, business records, criminal histories and arrest records, among other data.

This blog post discusses three distinct practice areas and how they can benefit from records searches.

Trial attorneys

For trial attorneys, data may come into play in a variety of use cases. For example, records related to criminal histories, including arrests, convictions and incarcerations, can verify information and be used for due diligence on witnesses and clients.

Records searches can also help you identify witnesses. Data that connects your client to associates, relatives, and former and current spouses or roommates is a good starting point for selecting potential character witnesses. On the other hand, data can be used to discredit witnesses.

Attorneys may also conduct more comprehensive investigations ahead of trial with current and historic license plate sighting data.

Estate planning attorneys

Sometimes clients don’t know the full extent of their assets, which can present a problem for estate planning attorneys. Fortunately, records searches can reveal assets clients and family members might not be aware of, including business assets and real property.

Assets aren’t the only information that might be unknown to estate planning attorneys. Current locations of named heirs may be difficult to track down. Through records searches, estate lawyers can find current and past residencies of known heirs, as well as contact information like phone numbers and email addresses. In certain circumstances, an estate planning attorney might find themselves searching for heirs who were not known to their clients.

A records search can help by providing information on the existence and whereabouts of more distant family members, including second- and third-degree relatives. Records searches can also provide date-of-death (DOD) information which might be material in the disposition of assets.

Divorce attorneys

Divorce attorneys can leverage a variety of records to gain insights about a client’s marriage, as well as personal details about the client and their soon-to-be-former spouse. For example, if lawyers are trying to understand the asset profile of the relationship, they can conduct a search of property owned jointly and separately by members of the marriage, as well as the assessed values of those properties.

If the client or spouse has any business interests, records can reveal that as well, along with business associates, assets and debts.

Records can also reveal information about a client’s or spouse’s debt, including liens, foreclosures and bankruptcies. Additional data could be relevant to identify and verify aliases, existence of other marriages, and the names and contact information of family members.

Use data to locate interested or impacted parties. You can also leverage data to identify, search for and notify missing, unknown or hard-to-locate beneficiaries and heirs for legal proceedings.

Start accessing records with TruLookup^™

There are a variety of ways to obtain data, including Internet searches and accessing public records databases. However, identifying and searching several sources and connecting the intel in meaningful ways can be an extremely time-consuming task. And there’s always the chance the data you do find is outdated.

TLOxp^®, part of the TransUnion TruLookup™ product line, enables you to tap into a variety of personal, business and alternative records to promote more fruitful outcomes. Our data fusion technology scans billions of records to find data that’s important to you — and deliver it in ways that make sense. With an intuitive interface, you can generate 360-degree profiles with minimum effort and time.

To learn more or request a free trial, click here.