What can a Private Detective do for me?
A private investigator can help in a lot of situations where you need facts, documentation, or someone found. Here’s a rundown of what PIs commonly do:
Personal and relationship matters:
Surveillance to confirm or rule out infidelity or suspicious behavior
Background checks on a new partner, roommate, or someone you’re doing business with - like a nanny or potential business partner
Locating people - old friends, estranged family, birth parents, or someone avoiding contact
Financial and business matters:
Asset searches to find bank accounts, property, or hidden holdings (common in divorces and lawsuits)
Forensic accounting to trace money, uncover fraud, or untangle complex finances
Due diligence before investing in or partnering with a company
Employee or business partner investigations for theft, embezzlement, or conflicts of interest
Legal Support:
Gathering evidence and interviewing witnesses for attorneys
Serving legal documents
Investigating insurance claims for fraud
Locating and vetting witnesses for a case
Other common services:
Skip tracing (finding people who’ve disappeared, often to collect a debt or serve papers)
Child custody investigations to document a co-parent’s fitness or behavior
Background and social media checks
While important to know what a private investigator can do for you, it’s also important to know what a private investigator cannot do for you. What a private investigator can legally do varies by state, and licensed investigators have to operate within the law.
In the state of Illinois, private investigators cannot:
Wiretap phones
Record conversations without all parties in the conversation being made aware
Access private financial records without authorization
Hack
Trespass
A private investigator’s value is in knowing how to gather admissible, usable information legally, which is often what separates a professional from someone just searching online.
