Anatomy of a defensible investigation report

Months after the case is closed, when witnesses no longer remember and the investigator may be gone, an outside lawyer will open the report and decide whether the company acted properly. That reader is who the report is written for. A good report does not tell a story: it allows one to be verified.

The eight sections

• Background. How and when the complaint arrived, who received it, what was done in the first 48 hours.
• Mandate and scope. What was commissioned, to whom, with what limits.
• Standard of proof. Declared, with reference to the approved plan.
• Methodology. Interviews conducted in order, evidence collected, chain of custody.
• Established facts. Only what the evidence supports, with a reference to each item.
• Analysis. Each element of the conduct tested against the evidence: the matrix.
• Determination. Substantiated, unsubstantiated or partial, element by element.
• Recommendations. Separate from the determination, because they are a different decision.

The three sentences that sink files

"Harassment was established": a conclusion without a path. "The witness was credible": an assessment without stated criteria. "Dismissal is recommended": the investigator intruding on the employer’s decision. Each one turns the investigator into a party and the report into an opinion.

What separates a report from a narrative

Traceability. Every established fact points to an annex: a numbered interview record, a document with a receipt date, a screenshot with verified origin. If a reader cannot go from finding to evidence in one step, the report narrates but does not prove. And in court, narrating is not enough.

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