Trust Your Lawyer or Don't

Lessons I learned working as a Private Investigator  

Susan Daniels Dec 06, 2024

I included a chapter in my book describing investigations I had done in the years before I started researching the fraudulent Barack Obama and his stolen Social Security Number. Every case is different, and many of my jobs done over thirty years were for lawyers. Most were reasonable, but some refused to pay their bill. Imagine that. I sued a number of them in Small Claims Court and always won.

A friend said that they would never hire me again if I sued. “Why would I want to work for someone who won’t pay their bill?” I asked.

The most satisfactory win was the one with a Cleveland lawyer, Tim Misny, whose television ads and billboard slogan was: “I’ll make them pay.” The rumor was that Misny never took a case to trial and would always settle. He doesn’t advertise that part.

I did background work for him in 1996 regarding someone he was suing. The bill should have been around $600 but I dropped it to $400, hoping to get him as a steady client. He sent me a letter and said my work was worth $200.

I was highly insulted and figured he had successfully pulled this stunt before. I immediately drove to Cleveland Municipal Court and filed a small claim against him. I arrived early the day the hearing was scheduled to learn he faxed over a request that morning asking for a continuance. The deputy at the door said they would reschedule.

I asked what should I do if the lawyer pulled the same stunt again. He said they would send two deputies to his office and they would march him to the courthouse. I got his check before the second hearing. I take great delight in telling people that “I made him pay.”

I sued another lawyer in a different court. I had done a lengthy background for a client’s case and presented it to him in a thick binder with the documents in sheet protectors and tabs. It was a difficult case because the background was on someone with a common name and the case involved various parcels of land. The lawyer was trying to find $30,000 to satisfy a judgment. I found $300,000.

The lawyer refused to pay the $480 bill. He secured my win in court for me when he waved around the binder and told the magistrate: 

“She gave me a Cadillac when all I wanted was a Chevrolet.” 

The Magistrate got very angry and banged his gavel as he ordered him to pay me. Magistrates don’t like when lawyers are sued. They take it personally since they are lawyers themselves.

I didn’t just go after lawyers:  In my local court, I filed a lawsuit against a private investigator. I never asked her for a retainer: professional courtesy. I did the work and also had a police chief ready to give her additional information. She refused to pay the $450 bill. After I won in court on a default judgment, I filed the paperwork for a civil warrant for her arrest.

I then learned that since she lived in an adjacent county, the Sheriff there would not pick her up. I was told the only chance I had was if she was ever stopped in my county.

It took eight years but she was finally caught speeding. I got a phone call from the court, and the bailiff told me the investigator spent the night in jail. Her son was now there to get her out. He asked if I was willing to accept $780 and if could I be there in ten minutes. The extra money was interest added and the cost for me to file the court actions. I couldn’t get my shoes on fast enough.

I had never met her before in person, but there she was in front of the judge: a short, angry woman with her twenty-something son by her side bailing her out. She never even looked my way.

Susan Daniels is a private investigator and the author of The Rubbish Hauler’s Wife versus Barack Obama: A True Story which is available on Amazon.com.

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