Then Mr. Gartner announced he had hired the two lawyers to investigate.

The reason, he said, is that under New York law, lawyers can investigate only legal matters, not sentimental ones.

One is the idea that independent lawyers should investigate when high officials are charged with misconduct.

Instead, he argued, his lawyers should have investigated his victims to uncover why a heavenly power had selected them to be shot.

The diocese has not decided if it will sell the house, which was donated to the diocese in the late 1940's, although lawyers are investigating liquidation.

A judge refused to allow lawyers to investigate the initial set of 52 IP address in a single case; instead, they could investigate just one.

Sometimes a disgruntled employee will tip off a lawyer to a potential problem that the lawyer will investigate.

Ms. Braun said a lawyer investigated the accusations after she received an anonymous letter detailing them a few weeks before Election Day.

Faced with a backlog of 60,000 cases, lawyers for the city cannot thoroughly investigate each claim or swiftly weed out frivolous ones, the study found.

The lawyers investigated further and discovered the shredding.