Facing a legal case? Amy Wallace, private investigator from Wallace Investigations has spent 20+ years in criminal defense, She shares what to know about attorneys, evidence, and mitigation.
When you're dealing with a legal case, the decisions you make about your attorney, evidence, and story can change everything.
Private investigator Amy Wallace has spent over two decades working criminal defense cases alongside attorneys across the U.S. As the founder of her own investigations agency, AW Investigations, she's seen what helps and hurts people in the courtroom. She's also a trained mitigation specialist who’s been with clients through their most difficult times in life, making sure the court sees the full picture of a defendant before sentencing.
Here's what she wants you to know.
Word of mouth is often the best way to find an attorney. Ask anyone you know who's been through the legal system who they used and whether they'd go back. Then interview a few before you commit. You want someone who listens, takes your case seriously, and makes you feel like a priority.
Phones are one of the biggest sources of evidence I work with, and they're also one of the easiest things to lose. The other side might hand over a snippet of a text that looks bad on its own. But once you see the full conversation, everything can change. Context is everything in this work.
If you have text messages, call history, photos, or anything else on your phone that's relevant to your case, protect it. Time-sensitive evidence disappears faster than most people realize. Devices reset, accounts get deleted, and surveillance footage gets erased automatically.
A lot of people only want to find the good stuff. But a thorough investigation means looking at everything – even the stuff you're nervous about. Your attorney needs to see the full picture before the other side does. The earlier you get ahead of it, the more options your attorney has to prepare, advise you, and shape the strategy. That's how you protect yourself going forward.
Mitigation is the work done before sentencing to show the court who you actually are as a person – your background, circumstances, what led you there, and what you're doing about it. A judge can only work with what's in front of them, and mitigation makes sure that picture is complete.
Most people reach sentencing without knowing this is even an option, and that's a missed opportunity. What counts as mitigation often surprises people. Childhood trauma, mental health history, substance use and recovery efforts, caregiving responsibilities, employment, genuine remorse, military service – all of this is relevant. I have a list of 150 factors on my website that attorneys and clients can draw from, and I've seen arguments made from circumstances people never thought would carry weight in a courtroom.
All these mitigating circumstances come together as a social history report, and the right report can open the door to alternatives like drug court or rehabilitation rather than incarceration. To do this work well, you need someone experienced and someone you're comfortable being honest with. These are personal conversations, and trust is what makes them effective.
