Civil Rights

Liberty Investigations works civil rights and constitutional cases on the plaintiff side, for attorneys and law firms handling plaintiff side civil rights litigation, and for nonprofit and justice organizations. Matters include excessive force and officer-involved shootings, wrongful arrest, deaths in custody, jail and prison conditions, civil suits following a wrongful conviction, and discrimination claims.

The work covers claims against state and local officers under Section 1983, and against federal agents, where the claim runs through the Federal Tort Claims Act rather than Section 1983.

Scope of the Work

Civil rights investigation develops the facts of the incident itself and the history behind it. We locate and interview witnesses no one else found, obtain records that were never produced, and develop patterns of conduct across other incidents and other cases.

The work commonly includes:

• Locating and interviewing witnesses to the incident, including bystanders, neighbors, and other people in custody who were present but never named in the official reports.
• Obtaining the agency's own records, including incident and offense reports, use of force reports, dispatch and radio traffic, and jail and medical records.
• Pursuing personnel and internal affairs files, prior complaints, prior lawsuits, and discipline history on the involved officers.
• Identifying and preserving video, including body worn and in-car camera footage, jail and facility surveillance, and private or business cameras covering the scene.
• Developing evidence of policy, training, supervision, and practice where the claim reaches the agency rather than the individual officer.
• Canvassing the scene, documenting and photographing conditions, and locating people who live or work nearby.
• Locating and interviewing former employees, former detainees, and others with direct knowledge of conditions inside a jail or prison facility.

Video and other recordings tend to go first, since agency and private systems overwrite on their own schedules and some hold footage only a matter of days. We work early to identify what cameras covered the scene and get preservation requests out before the footage is gone.

Timing and Deadlines

Civil rights claims carry limitations periods and, where a governmental unit is involved, notice requirements that can run much shorter than the limitations period itself. Some Texas cities impose notice deadlines by charter that are shorter still. Counsel sets those dates, but they govern how much investigation can realistically be done before a claim has to be filed.

When a case comes in early, witnesses are still findable, memories are closer to the incident, and video and dispatch records are still inside their retention windows. On a matter that arrives late, we start with preservation and the evidence most likely to disappear, then develop the rest as the case proceeds.

Working With Counsel

We are engaged by attorneys and by nonprofit and justice organizations. Attorney direction sets the scope of the work and protects the work product.

Engagements vary. Some matters call for a full reinvestigation of the incident from the ground up. Others involve a defined set of tasks counsel needs handled, such as locating a particular witness, pulling a specific set of records, or running the history on an involved officer. We work to whatever scope counsel sets.

Working with Liberty Investigations

Reach out by phone, email, or contact form to discuss the case. Engagements are documented before work begins and tailored to the scope and funding of each matter. For questions about billing, retainers, and post-service arrangements, see the Working With Us page.