The witness a case depended on.

The brief

The instructing solicitors had reached a point in litigation where a particular witness was indispensable. The witness had been present at the events in question and was believed to hold information that no other party could provide. Attempts to contact them through known channels had gone unanswered. The last address on file was out of date, there was no current employer listed anywhere obvious, and a trial date was approaching. Our instruction was precise: find a current address, by lawful means, quickly.

The work

We worked from what was available — a name, a professional background, and a city that was several years out of date. Open sources were the only instrument in play: electoral and directory records, professional registrations, company filings in which the witness appeared as a named officer or director, and the ordinary traces that a working adult leaves in publicly accessible records over time. The witness had changed address twice since the last known entry — but had not changed name, profession, or the habit of appearing in filings that are matters of public record. A current registration, made in their own name, provided the anchor we needed. We traced it to a residential address and verified the link through a second independent source before including it in our report.

The outcome

The solicitors received a sourced, verified address with full documentation of how each finding had been reached — a report that could be shown to the court if the basis for service were ever challenged. Contact was made, the witness was served, and evidence that had been at risk of being lost to the proceedings was secured. The trial proceeded on the scheduled date.

Names, places, sums and dates are altered to protect client confidentiality. We never confirm a client or a case; this is the kind of problem we solve.