Ken Childs: Hiring a Private Investigator in a Divorce Case

Insurance fraud, workers' compensation claims, background checks on a new partner, and yes, occasionally a missing cat. What a private investigator gets hired for runs wider than the obvious. Ken Childs has been doing surveillance since two weeks before his twenty-first birthday, and he has clear views on when a family case actually needs him.

Ken Childs is a licensed California private investigator and the founder of Paramount Investigative Services, based in Los Angeles. Surveillance is the core of the practice, with insurance and workers' compensation fraud making up much of the work, alongside custody and infidelity matters, witness interviews, and litigation support. He has testified as an expert witness, and his cases have been covered in national media. This is his first appearance on the show.

Childs is useful here because he does not oversell. Infidelity, in California, rarely moves a case on its own, but a spouse who denied it under oath has created a credibility issue an attorney can work with. A background check on the adult who is suddenly around your children runs a couple of hundred dollars and can settle a question that has been keeping you up. And when nothing turns up, he treats that as the good result it is.

The section on choosing an investigator is the one to replay. Read the site, read the reviews, and pay attention to whether the person is listening or selling you fear. Childs's view is that an investigator who tells you the situation is desperate and you need to move right now is the one to walk away from, and he extends the same test to hiring an attorney: skip the name brand, read the references, and look for the ones who say this person fought for me. He and Lisa also talk about what to photograph before you file, why he wants a conversation with your attorney, and why an investigator who impersonates you to a bank is handing the other side a reason to exclude everything they found.

As always, this is strategic education, not legal or mental-health advice for your specific situation.

🎓 What you'll learn

• What a private investigator is genuinely useful for in a divorce or custody case
• Why infidelity may matter less than the lie told about it under oath
• When a background check on a new adult in your child's life is worth the money
• How to vet an investigator, and the warning sign of someone selling you fear
• Childs's test for hiring an attorney: references over name recognition
• What to photograph and document before a divorce filing if assets may be moved
• Why an investigator who impersonates you to a bank makes the evidence unusable

⏱️ Chapters
0:00 Intro
1:00 What people actually hire a private investigator for
3:00 How Childs got into the work, and what keeps him in it
5:00 Infidelity, credibility, and where it lands in a California case
7:00 Background checks on the adults around your children
9:00 Choosing an investigator, and spotting one who sells you fear
13:00 Twenty-seven years of surveillance, and what he says makes the difference
15:00 Hiring an attorney: references over name brands
17:00 Working with your attorney, and catching order violations
18:00 Financial fraud: photograph everything before you file
19:00 Where investigators cross the line, and why it ruins the evidence

Keep going 💜
Book a free 30-minute discovery call and we'll help you map your next steps: https://beentheregotout.com/call
📘 Been There Got Out: Toxic Relationships, High-Conflict Divorce, and How to Stay Sane Under Insane Circumstances — https://www.amazon.com/dp/194627495X
📘 Been There Got Out: When Your Ex Turns the Kids Against You (our parental-alienation book) — https://www.amazon.com/dp/1967674183
🔗 Ken Childs at Paramount Investigative Services: https://licensed-investigator.com/ken-childs-private-investigator/

About Been There Got Out
Chris Barry and Lisa Johnson are high-conflict divorce, custody, and co-parenting strategists, and the founders of Been There Got Out. They know these cases from the inside: both have successfully represented themselves in family court. Few attorneys have a playbook for a case like this — Chris and Lisa write yours with you, so you and your kids can get through it as unscathed as possible.