About the Author
 

Paul Purcell spent many college and post-college years in the hospitality industry.  This considerable restaurant experience grew into a thriving hospitality consulting firm called "Southern Hospitality" where the focus was on risk management, guest safety, internal and external security, workplace violence prevention, and both cash and inventory control.

In 1996, Paul was approached by a licensed investigative firm in Atlanta, Georgia where he was invited to come on board as their risk management and security analyst.  In 1998, Paul, along with partners Frances Carter and Ben Willis, opened his own licensed private investigation agency, InfoQuest.

InfoQuest's early years were packed with numerous cases of all types. worked on behalf of private citizens as well as for law firms.  These included domestics, worker's comp, fraud, white collar crime, missing persons, theft, background investigations, and many more.

Early on, Paul learned the value of being organized.  Too often he'd go work a case armed with little more than a legal pad in his hand and a set of questions in his mind.  This led to exhaustive hours spent trying to decipher his own notes, making sense of cryptic and partial information, forgetting to gather important detail, and then trying to create an accurate report and invoice based more on memory than documentation.

Something had to change.

Paul began creating a series of forms and documents that would help with the types of investigations InfoQuest was tasked with working.  The goal was that when a client called, all that was needed was to "click print" and the appropriate documents would be ready and would include everything from a case or job intake form, complete with client information,  through the detailed questions needed to start the case, all the way to the final checklist that would make sure the case had been properly concluded.

As Paul worked more and more cases in the field using this system, not only did the workload increase due to his improved professional image, but more and more people, including other investigators and attorney clients, made requests for copies of the system and suggested that the system be marketed within the industry.

And so, in 1999, "The Case File" was born, and for the past 10 years we have been helping everyone working any type of legal cases become more professional and more profitable.

Although a commercial product, Paul still had strict rules regarding The Case File.  First, it would remain as highly detailed as anything InfoQuest uses in-house.  Paul felt the professionalism of fellow investigators would ultimately reflect back on him and that the more people he could help improve their business, he'd have more colleagues with which to network.  Secondly, the price had to remain low.  Paul, like many of us, had been price-gouged before and feels it's dishonest to charge far more than something is worth.  Though worth much more than it's currently priced, Paul wanted The Case File's price to remain below what any private investigator would charge for one hour's work.

Paul continues his work as a security analyst and preparedness consultant for InfoQuest Investigators & Associates, Inc. as he has for the last twelve years.  In addition to the work he does for InfoQuest and The Case File, Paul is also the author of "Disaster Prep 101" which can be found at www.disasterprep101.com