Family Law / Personal Relations

Family law cases are a type of civil case, but they generally involve issues between or concerning spouses, parents and children. Family courts handle a wide variety of cases involving domestic matters. The most common issues handled at family court include:

Marriage Dissolution, when someone wants to end a marriage, they can file a case at family court to ask for a court order ending the marriage. Marriages can be terminated through divorce or annulment cases. The court can also grant a separation, where the court issues orders regarding property, alimony and child custody, but the parties remain legally married. 

Paternity and Child Custody, when a man needs to be declared the father of a child, either parent can file a case asking the family court to determine paternity. This permanently establishes the father of the child. Unmarried parents can also ask the court to order legal custody, physical custody, visitation schedules and child support. 

Protection Orders Against Domestic Violence, victims of domestic violence can ask the family court to issue protection orders to keep their abuser away. 

Unfortunately, dating sites and hook up apps have made this problem worse than ever. Infidelity commonly leads to divorce and other legal issues. Santa Barbara Surveillance Company has a lot of experience conducting these kinds of cases. From long-term marriages to new dating relationships we have covered it all.

Cases that involve dishonesty in personal relationships are the most emotionally devastating. Trust is the foundation of any relationship and when that is violated the emotions are extreme and the desire for truth is at an all time high. Documenting infidelity can also play a helpful role in healing and recovery.

The causes and reasons can be many, getting the videotape evidence to prove that a partner in a relationship is not honest is important to help people make proper choices and protect themselves from fraud. Santa Barbara Surveillance Company has been a useful in many divorce cases ranging from common divorces, to very high profile situations. California is a no fault divorce state.

Being located in Santa Barbara has given us a first hand account of what could be considered one of the main roots of the problem with infidelity! The city attracts a lot of people with too much time and money on their hands. People in a place with lots of temptations makes it tough for some to keep focused on any relationship. Santa Barbara is a well known haven for the rich, trust-funders and the wanna-be's who seem to get distracted by all that the CA resort life has to offer. Also Santa Barbara is a known destination for people who think that like Las Vegas, they can get away with whatever they want and it won't effect their real life back home. Worst are the cold hearted predators who target the rich, lonely and elderly. We can’t really use that term "I've seen it all" because people keep coming up with more ways to cheat and we have to keep that in mind to be effective, but we have seen some disturbing cases over the past 40 years. Not judging anyone, that isn't our department. For a completely confidential discussion give us a call.

Red Flags for Infidelity:

There are many red flags but the main one that is so often overlooked is CHANGES. In my over four decades of experience in this field changes are what it comes down to. The saying "People are creatures of habit" is very true! Changes in personal habits and daily routines can be an indication of a new love interest and/or relationship. Some changes might be more obvious like a sudden change in dress or personal style like hair, makeup or a change in the way they dress. Or a shift in the work schedule and new activities like the gym or yoga. A very common one is unexplained absences and whereabouts. But some are very hard to detect and conferring with and hiring a Private Investigator can be necessary to figure it out. My very first Infidelity case forty years ago didn't take me 10 minutes to find the connection "involved" in the back of a VW Bus. Not all cases are that obvious and easy, most of the time it takes a lot of time and work to determine peoples connections.

These are some of the more challenging types of investigations handled by Santa Barbara Surveillance Company. These very sensitive child custody disputes often involve very young children and minors. Many times allegations of child abuse and neglect need to be documented on videotape and submitted to family law courts to establish custody. These commonly arise out of divorce cases and children born without the legal documentation of marriage. These matters require very specialized understanding of the laws and should be done under the supervision of legal representation to be used in a court of law. Santa Barbara Surveillance Company works with many family law firms.

This is another kind of Investigation that Santa Barbara Surveillance Company has successfully conducted on behalf of family law firms. Surveillance can be used to determine and document for the courts unreported sources of income and assets that are used to increase or sometimes lower spousal support and child support payments. Unfortunately Dishonesty seems to be all too common in these kinds of family law issues.

Financial fraud is very diverse. Auditors and Forensic Accountants use Private Investigators. Investigators conduct surveillance to locate assets that may be hidden from creditors in a bankruptcy or a divorce. Property like vehicles, boats and aircraft can be moved to remote locations or transferred to protect from seizure by the courts or the repo man. Money also can be moved and put into other accounts or other names and surveillance may be necessary to determine where they bank or who they have given access to accounts. Divorces typically involve one or more parties trying to hide assets by diverting funds and assets before an anticipated filling. Also hiding assets can begin when a marriage begins and a prenuptial is contracted.

Dating Sites And Apps Have Taken Over.

Do people meet in person anymore? We were all stuck indoors recently thanks to the lockdown, which then created an online explosion of loneliness that was filled by new ways to meet up online.

This is to help understand the dangers involved in starting relationships using the modern tools that we are all getting used to, dating sites, dating apps and hook-up sites. The old saying "Love is Blind" is never truer than when you just clicked on an enticing profile and you have no idea who or where that profile really is. No one can keep track of all the dating sites and apps anymore but one thing that is important to understand is almost none of them verify any of the profiles. I would estimate that most profiles involve exaggeration at minimum and out right fraud many times. The goal is financial gain, lust or much worse. I don't want to share the gory case details here but some high profile mass murderers start using dating sites and fill up entire TV series on Investigation Discovery Network. Once we get the love bug and our hormones start to flow our brains get short circuited and we want to believe. That is normal as we all want to find love.

What can a Private Investigator do? A fresh set of eyes without the rose colored glasses can help to see through some of the smoke and mirrors and look for things to corroborate and verify the profile. Never send money or disclose personal or financial information until you have some verification. Unfortunately some of the sites and apps are setup to blind the unsuspecting from verification. Some of the most popular are not even based in the USA. Don't feel bad if you need help to sort through the fog created by a new relationship. It's better to be cautious than become a victim of the many new kinds of dating fraud that can be dangerous and even deadly. If something doesn't feel right it probably isn't and your gut is trying to tell you something.

Social Media Investigations is used in conjunction with many other types of private investigations. As an example in Personal Injury Claims or Workers’ Compensation Investigations, the pre-surveillance social media search may find that they are involved in sports and other physical activity that is contrary to what they claim in their doctors reports. There is a wealth of potential information available to Private Investigators who conduct Social Media Investigations while in the course of Family Law Cases and personal matters of Infidelity and relationship fraud especially dating website schemes, scams and fraud but that is another topic.

The Difference Between Social Media Research And A Private Investigator Conducting Social Media Investigations

Unfortunately the media itself misleads many using the term Social Media Research. Many websites, companies and people advertise their services as Social Media Research that are NOT LICENSED PRIVATE INVESTIGATORS. This can be very detrimental to a case when a court finds that the information obtained may not have been legally obtained or can not be submitted into evidence. Licensed Private Investigators who conduct their own Social Media INVESTIGATIONS have more experience and intuition to determine fact from fiction. Many social media sites and profiles are just a lot of fiction and fraud and a real P.I. can go out in the field and conduct surveillance determine if the business or the person in the profile really exists. Some social media research is just a program that digs into the internet to pull up anything connected to the subject. But what is the connection? Thats why it takes a Private Investigator to determine what can be verified.