SERVICES
Dr. TJ Payne provides forensic case review, investigative narrative consulting, and victim-centered analysis for families, legal teams, advocates, journalists, and media professionals working with complex case material.
Services are designed to help clients organize records, clarify timelines, identify investigative gaps, summarize legal and case materials, and prepare evidence-based narratives for advocacy, legal review, media development, or institutional accountability.
available services
Initial Case Consultation
A focused consultation for families, attorneys, advocates, journalists, or media professionals who need help understanding what materials they have, what remains unclear, and what kind of review, organization, or next-step support may be useful.
Family Case Review & Advocacy Packets
For families seeking answers after a loved one’s death, disappearance, or unresolved case. This service helps organize case materials into timelines, summaries, investigative questions, and advocacy packets that can be shared with legal counsel, law enforcement, prosecutors, journalists, or advocacy organizations.
Legal Case Review & Investigation Support
For attorneys, mitigation specialists, civil rights teams, and legal professionals. Services may include timeline reconstruction, discovery organization, police report analysis, witness/source mapping, victimology review, case law summaries, and investigative-gap memos.
Police Report & Investigation Review
A focused review of police reports, incident reports, witness statements, timelines, and investigative records designed to identify inconsistencies, unsupported conclusions, missing follow-up, unclear assumptions, and areas requiring further review.
Case Law & Legal Records Review
Support reviewing court documents, legal records, and relevant case law. This may include case law summaries, legal issue overviews, accessible explanations of legal themes, and connections between legal context, investigative history, and case facts.
Media, Podcast & Documentary Consulting
For journalists, podcasters, documentary teams, writers, and advocacy organizations working with real cases. Services may include forensic story audits, ethical true crime consultation, case narrative structure, source mapping, timeline review, and victim-centered analysis.
rates & access
Dr. Payne offers both hourly and project-based case review services. Because each case varies in scope, volume of materials, urgency, and complexity, most projects begin with an initial consultation and a written estimate.
Initial Consultation
Free 20 minute fit call, followed by an initial consultation for 60 minutes at $200/hr. This consultation is designed to understand the case or project, identify the materials currently available, clarify the type of support needed, and determine whether a larger case review, records review, advocacy packet, or consulting project is appropriate. Should the project end up costing $1,000 or more, the consultation fee will be applied to that retainer.
Hourly Case Review
Case review, investigative analysis, legal records review, police report review, timeline reconstruction, and consulting work are generally billed at $150/hour unless otherwise agreed in writing. Attorney, legal team, and agency work may be billed hourly, by project estimate, or by retainer, depending on scope. Before beginning work, Dr. Payne will provide an estimated range of hours based on the materials provided and the requested scope of review.
Project-Based Estimates
Some projects may be quoted as a flat-fee estimate after an initial consultation. Written case reviews, family advocacy packets, investigative-gap memos, legal records summaries, and media or documentary consulting projects vary depending on the volume of materials, complexity of the case, and requested deliverables.
Limited Pro Bono & Sliding-Scale Availability
A limited number of reduced-fee or pro bono matters may be considered for families, community cases, or cases involving marginalized victims, unresolved deaths, LGBTQ+ communities, or significant public-interest concerns. Availability is limited and determined on a case-by-case basis.
Reduced-fee or pro bono support does not guarantee acceptance of a case, law enforcement action, prosecutorial action, media coverage, or any specific case outcome.
professional boundaries
Services are consultative, analytical, organizational, and narrative in nature. Dr. Payne does not provide legal advice, legal representation, licensed private investigation services, forensic pathology review, or mental health treatment. Legal investigative work is conducted only within appropriate professional, supervisory, and jurisdictional boundaries.
Case review does not guarantee law enforcement action, prosecutorial action, media coverage, or any specific case outcome.