SPOTLIGHT INVESTIGATIVE Forensic Locksmiths Are Always Needed investigative services. One was for automotive, and the other involved an injury in a restroom stall in an airport lounge. I referred each of those to a member in the re- spective areas. I did do some research on the second one, just for my own curiosity, though. It ap- T pears the person was departing the stall. When the door was pushed open, it came back at a speed greater than the minimum three seconds and collided with the person, separating their shoulder and causing other injuries. In talking with the investiga- tor who did land the job, the door was a standard 3' x 7' solid core with a half light frosted glass. It did not have a door closer, but it had spring hinges. This case would fall under ADA and is part of the building and fire code. Rest- room stalls are not required to have a door closer, but by adding the spring hinges, they added a closing device. ADA and the building fire code specifically state that the door cannot close faster than three seconds from an opening of 70 degrees. Clearly, this is in violation of that code, and the facility will be responsible for all damages and can be fined by the AHJ. Why We Get This Work Now you might wonder, since it is so cut-and-dried, why they would need to hire a forensic investigator to investigate and write a report? Good question. The answer is that the facility does not want to pay for damages caused by the door. This is good for us because we get to make a site inspection and write a detailed report outlining what caused the injury and which building ADA code was violated. Then our report goes through three to five edits because attorneys are such wordsmiths that no mat- ter how good of a writer you are, it will never be good enough for the attorney. That all works for me, because I charge $350 an hour, and rewriting the report can take up to an hour. This case is worth about $18,000 in fees by the time it is settled, and it will not go to court. If it does, then double my estimate. For those of you who have 40-plus years in locksmithing and are starting to feel the aches and pains of service work, look at a new career as a forensic investigator. You 12 KEYNOTES JULY/AUGUST 2020 his is a real treat. Usually you would be bogged down with the convention issue and not have an IAIL Spotlight page, but since the convention can’t be held, you now get to read another one of my boring pages. I talked to a couple new clients in the past two weeks looking for “For those of you who have 40-plus years in locksmithing and are starting to feel the aches and pains of service work, look at a new career as a forensic investigator.” will need to take many classes and go aſter those credentials you never had time for. This will help you build a solid curriculum vitae (CV) that will help attorneys see that you are the expert they are looking for. As always, if you have any questions, comments and/or suggestions, please contact me at [email protected]. Tom Resciniti Demont, AHC, CAI, CFDI, CFL, CMIL, CML, CMST, ICML, IFDI, LSFDI, ARL. President, In- ternational Association of Investigative Locksmiths. [email protected] Get Published! IAIL members: Submit your articles for the Investigative Spotlight department. Send your information to Ross Squire at [email protected]. WWW.ALOA.ORG
