Private Investigator or Case Examiner?

[Richard L Johnson]

I live in the Allentown, PA area and I don't have a background that would allow me to get my license.

What I want to know is if I work for an agency will I be a "Private Investigator" or a "Case Examiner"?

What would I put on my business cards?

If I investigate a case would it still be a Case Examiner and is it legal?

I look forward to hearing back from someone soon. And thanks for the info.

Sincerely,

Rich Johnson

[Christine Anderson -]

Richard,

Here is what David Copeland stated about the wording on a badge/wallet. I assume this would apply to business cards as well.

Before you have business cards printed, check out the forum discussion about IPIU Legal Services Dept. making business cards for members. I believe this is still in the planning stages.


Originally posted by David Copeland
IPIU designed the badge to meet all of the state restrictions nationwide, by including the words in the lower ribbon as "Case Examiner". No state has any restriction on this badge because of the extra wording, and there are no licensing requirments in any state for a case examiner (which can do examination of cases for attorneys under the law firm's license)

Also, all IPIU members who are issued photo-ID are preassigned to several national agencies in states where there are no badge restrictions.

[Technical Support]

The following is a quote from the LICENSING FORUM regarding the title of CASE EXAMINER:



Originally posted by Carl Violando
I would be interested in seeing a legal definition of the term.

A Case Examiner does not exclusively work for an attorney. I do not have a copy of Black's Law Dictionary to look up any potential definitions of "Case" or "Examiner" that is relavent to your question, but I am sure Websters will give you plenty of definitions under both "Case" and "Examiner".

There are no laws in any state or providence governing the term "Case Examiner".

At one time there were no laws governing Para-Legal either, but some states now have regulation for Para-Legals.

At one time there were no state laws for Bail Enforcement Agent or Bounty Hunter. Now some states are regulating these, as well as Process Server.

At one time there was no mention of Information Broker in any of the licensing statutes for private investigator, but now some states are listing Information Broker as a qualified exemption to private investigator licensing.

So the term or tiltle of Case Examiner is free to use at this time when you wish to examine all aspects of a case without performing any additional duties that may be regulated by state laws such as "advertising yourself as a Case Examiner that can perform bodyguard services with a concealed weapon."

IPIU will aid you in obtaining enough on the job experience in a legal and lawful manner within the statutes as a private investigator trainee or case examiner to help qualify you for eventual private investigator licensing. There are now over 50 areas that private investigators specialize in, and many of those same specialities are performed by Case Examiners.

Our mission statement includes academic training, testing, and experience before considering an independent license on your own. The only exception to this is to own your own agency and use a sparetime licensed investigator to be responsible for the performance of the cases you obtain from your clients. We now have a new member's Forum for these tips and resources.
For General Licensing discussions:
Go to the Licensing Forums.

[Tamara Kittendorf]

Originally posted by Technical Support


At one time there were no laws governing Para-Legal either, but some states now have regulation for Para-Legals.


I wanted to make a statement about this because I am currently in a Legal Assisting program in Florida and there has been extensive discussion about this in almost every course. Even though there was no regulation done specifically by the states, attorneys and the ABA have been regulating paralegals through the court system for decades. Although there are not really many specific regulation laws pertaining to this field, states have restricted the duties that a paralegals may legally perform in other ways. They have done this through, what they call, "Unauthorized Practice of Law", (which started with courts deciding what paralegals could and could not do). Plus, a paralegal must obtain training through an ABA-approved program, or through job-specific experience in a law office under the supervision of an attorney before being able to claim the title of a paralegal/legal assistant. Many law offices are also starting to hire only paralegals who have obtained a degree from an ABA-approved program and have been exam-certified by one of the two paralegal associations ( NALA or NFPA). The only thing left to do, as far as regulating the field, is to require a state license also. There is also very little that a paralegal can legally do without the supervision of an attorney. I know that this is off the topic a bit, but having done research on the topic, I thought I'd offer the info anyway for clarification purposes.