Florida Licensing Exemptions

[Mr. Jody W. Neubert]

For individuals who live in Florida these are the exemptions to licensing.


Exemptions

Those who are considered exempt from licensing include:


"In-house" investigators who are solely, exclusively, and regularly employed as an investigator in connection with the business of an employer that does not advertise or provide investigative services for a fee.

Active law enforcement officers while engaged in his or her official duties.

Insurance investigators or adjusters licensed by the Florida Department of Insurance.

Those who exclusively furnish investigative information about the financial standing, habits, and responsibilities of persons or businesses.

Attorneys in the regular practice of their profession.
Banks, credit unions, loan companies, and consumer credit reporting agencies.

Persons holding professional licenses in Florida when providing expert advice in their professions.

Those providing investigative services solely and exclusively for any United States agency.

[Jim Ley--]

Jody and others,

Please note that this is merely my opinion and not legal advice. That said, I would strongly suggest that you tread carefully with this thread.

The Florida Department of State, Division of Licensing (DOL) does NOT interpret the statutes pertaining to investigations liberally. However, you do NOT want to be caught by the DOL acting outside the scope of the exemptions. If they do take administrative action against you you run the risk of losing your opportunity for licensing forever.

There is one main exemption to licensing and this is it:

If you are an employee of a law firm or other business and perform investigations exclusively for that business you do not need a license.

The others merely outline the scope of other facets of investigation that are not PRIVATE investigation. A police officer acting as a police officer is not a private investigator.

A forensic accountant acting as an accountant is not a private investigator. An insurance adjuster, a collection agent and other professions that may conduct an investigation as part of that job is not acting as a private investigator. Don't make the mistake of thinking you are an insurance adjuster one day while conducting surveillance and a forensic accountant the next day while doing an asset check. The DOL will take a dim view of that and you will pay the price.

Remember this, only an investigative AGENCY (Florida Type "A" License) may contract with another agency, business or individual for renumerated services. If you are charging money for investigative services on a case-by-case basis you ARE acting as a private investigator and need to have a license.

If you want to work for Joe Attorney as his investigator, he signs your paycheck, and you ONLY perform services for him then you're okay. If you work for several attorneys as a contractor you will have problems.
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Information brokering and research is a different issue. As long as you don't generate a report or form an opinion you are generally okay. When you start to issue reports (and trust me the DOL considers changing the font on an Autotrak report as generating a report) you are acting as a private investigator. If you
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According to Florida statute 493.6101 (17) you are acting as a private investigator if you perform any of the following duties:

"Private investigation" means the investigation by a person or persons for the purpose of obtaining information with reference to any of the following matters:

(a) Crime or wrongs done or threatened against the United States or any state or territory of the United States, when operating under express written authority of the governmental official responsible for authorizing such investigation.

(b) The identity, habits, conduct, movements, whereabouts, affiliations, associations, transactions, reputation, or character of any society, person, or group of persons.

(c) The credibility of witnesses or other persons.

(d) The whereabouts of missing persons, owners of abandoned property or escheated property, or heirs to estates.

(e) The location or recovery of lost or stolen property.

(f) The causes and origin of, or responsibility for, fires, libels, slanders, losses, accidents, damage, or injuries to real or personal property.

(g) The business of securing evidence to be used before investigating committees or boards of award or arbitration or in the trial of civil or criminal cases and the preparation therefor.
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As near as I can figure, doing courthouse research, pulling database information, Internet research and other similar things is okay. You don't need a license to do so. Just make sure it goes from the courthouse (or database or whatever) to the client without be altered IN ANY WAY. That way you don't risk acting as a Private Investigator without a license.

Also, remember this when doing research. If someone tells you to go pull the XYZ case and make copies you're acting as an information broker or researcher. If you look at the file and decide which case to pull you may be acting as an investigator. Don't go there without a license or an exemption.
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Okay, that's it. I'm done preaching. I'm not trying to scare anyone. Instead I'm trying to make sure that you can eventually reach your goal. There are a lot of unscrupulous people out there who are more than willing to take advantage of someone new to the business without so much as a care of what the ramifications might be. So please be careful out there. Don't do anything that will jeopardize your dream in the long run. If you have any questions please feel free to call. I'll be glad to help.

Take Care,

[admin]

Thank you, Jim, for your reply. I added some bold to your reply to clarify specific areas too.

We will be establishing a new forum for the "Business of Operating a Private Investigative Agency" soon. In that new forum will be further exemptions from the Florida statutes that are not listed. Our legal affairs department discovered these exemptions, that in essence... permits an unlicensed private investigator to operate their unlicensed agency in other un-regulated unlicensed states (such as Colorado, Idaho, etc) through the means of a toll free number, fax, and internet. And I too am not expressing a legal opinion here, because Legal Affairs will do that. But from what I understand, the states of California, New York, Florida, and all others have no issue with anyone managing their out of state agency so long as they do not advertise in the regulated state, such as Florida. This exemption would permit trained, but unlicensed, private investigators to advertise their out of state investigations, and manage their cases wherever they reside, thus adding to their experience. However, if part of their out-of-state investigation requires a portion of investigation in their regulated state, such as Florida, then they would use a licensed professional, such as yourself, to conduct that part of the investigation.

It is a delicate process, as you also hinted. And for that matter this is why Legal Affairs will be developing the new forum as more investigators wish to use the internet and technology to market themselves.

(More later as it is announced)