Choosing a consultant
There are a number of consultancies and individuals providing response advice during an incident. When choosing a policy the decision should be largely be based on which response provider comes with it.
There are a number of factors that should be taken into consideration when deciding which response consultancy to select, as summarised below.
- Experience: the number of cases on which the organisation has assisted, the outcomes and the countries that they have been in. Experience in a commercial rather than government service capacity is important.
- Database: does the organisation maintain a store of information about previous cases both on which it has worked and from other reliable sources? Such information is vital when dealing with a new case.
- Country contacts: the knowledge of and contact with law enforcement and government agencies abroad.
- Legal requirements: knowledge of relevant in-country laws.
- Country offices: the existence of local offices to support clients and deployed consultants.
- Selection and training: individuals should be subject to a rigorous and in-depth selection and training process before being deployed by a consultancy on a case.
- Employment: some organisations only use consultants who are salaried employees and work exclusively for them. Others use a pool of retained consultants. It is preferable to have consultants who are full-time employees as this ensures better training, ongoing updates on issues on the ground, knowledge of current incidents, access to database information, exchange of ideas amongst consultants, quality control by management and confidentiality of information.
- Response procedure: the best response service comes from a dedicated 24-hour response line.
Some consultancies will have all these facilities, others will not. Full details and a list of questions to ask are given in our guideline booklets distributed to policyholders.
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