Call (203) 327-1500 to discuss your issue
When deciding to conduct an independent investigation, you should consult with an experienced, impartial and professional investigator. At Koffsky & Felsen, LLC, we collaborate closely with our clients to ensure we clearly understand your needs and concerns and define the nature and scope of the investigation. We create a comprehensive plan and schedule with that enables our attorneys to conduct an investigation in a timely and thorough manner.
The partners at Koffsky & Felsen, LLC have experience balancing requests for confidentiality against the need for transparency in our findings. Attorneys Bruce Koffsky and Audrey Felsen have significant experience investigating sensitive issues such as sexual harassment and abuse in educational and workplace settings. We preserve, obtain and review materials to support and confirm witnesses’ statements. We access and examine emails, social media, disciplinary records, personnel files, police reports, incident reports, criminal records and relevant handbooks and manuals.
Our role and responsibility as independent investigators is not influenced by who retains our firm to conduct the investigation. We are committed to conducting an unbiased and objective investigation and our findings are fact-based rather than a means to an end. We perform conflict checks before starting any investigation to make sure we do not have any affiliations or ties to the hiring agency to avoid any appearance of bias.
Our attorneys’ investigative methods are based on decades of working in the criminal and civil state and federal courts. Both Attorneys Audrey Felsen and Bruce Koffsky have experience interviewing witnesses, victims, plaintiffs and defendants at all stages of investigations and in criminal and civil proceedings. We have represented employers, employees, students and teachers in different capacities and have a thorough understanding of the need to objectively gather and confirm information in a timely manner.
We understand the importance of preserving written communications, videos and any other communications that could be erased, destroyed or otherwise made unavailable if not identified and protected in a timely manner. As soon as we begin an investigation, we determine whether there is any danger of spoliation of evidence – whether there is a possibility evidence could be tampered with, altered, damaged or destroyed in any way. We take steps to identify and safeguard potentially relevant information and leave no stone unturned.
We obtain records through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and ensure we use all available resources to attempt to corroborate witnesses accounts of certain events.
We conduct a comprehensive interview process and identify and contact any witnesses who may be able to provide collateral information or corroborate incidents or accounts and establish credibility. We carefully document our investigative process and communicate with witnesses regarding the status of the investigation, respecting confidentiality and the sensitive nature of our communications. We frequently update our clients regarding our progress and are transparent in our conclusions and the way in which they are communicated. We prepare either oral or written reports based on objective, fact-based findings.
Our interview process includes:
- Identifying and interviewing potential witnesses, in person and over the phone
- Obtaining and reviewing documents, including emails, text messages, social media posts, personnel files, videos, disciplinary records, police reports, incident reports, criminal records and handbooks and policy manuals
- Following up with potential witnesses, corroborating statements
- Credibility determinations
- Preparing written or oral reports of our findings
- Advising clients about how to communicate findings
If you are interested in conducting an independent investigation or have any questions regarding independent legal investigations into allegations of misconduct, contact us at the Law Offices of Koffksy & Felsen, LLC at 203-327-1500.
