The Retainer That Kept Growing
You are a licensed private investigator in Alberta retained by a property management company to locate a tenant who vacated owing $8,400 in rent and $1,200 in damages. The client's written contract authorizes you to 'obtain all information necessary to collect the debt.' Over three weeks you find the former tenant's new address, employer, and bank branch. The client now asks you to obtain the tenant's bank account balances and recent transaction history from a contact at the branch, and to call the tenant's new employer posing as a credit union verifying employment. You have already billed 14 hours. The client says the balance information is 'the only way to know if suing is worth it.'
1. Identify the legal and ethical problems with the client's two new requests and explain what you may and may not do.
Read the worked answer
Both requests exceed what a private investigator may lawfully do in Alberta and what the retainer authorizes.
Bank records. Obtaining a person's financial account information from a branch contact is not something a PI licence permits. Financial institutions are bound by privacy law and their own confidentiality obligations; a PI cannot use a personal contact to circumvent those controls. The client's broad 'obtain all information necessary' clause does not create a legal power the investigator does not otherwise have. Contract language cannot expand statutory authority.
Pretext call to employer. Posing as a credit union to extract employment verification is deception aimed at a third party who has not consented and has no obligation to the investigator. It risks misrepresentation and privacy breach, and it can expose both you and the client.
What you may do: confirm publicly available information, use lawful skip-tracing methods, request records through proper channels (court order, judgment enforcement, consent from the subject), and advise the client to pursue a judgment and garnishment, which gives a lawful route to the bank information. You should document the refusal in the file and put the limitation in writing to the client.
2. The client insists, saying 'everyone does this.' How do you respond, and what should be in the file?
Read the worked answer
Decline clearly and in writing. 'Everyone does this' is not a legal defence; the licence and the legislation set the standard, and a regulator will judge you on your own conduct, not industry folklore.
The file should contain: the client's written request (or your contemporaneous note of the verbal request), your written refusal explaining the legal basis, the alternative lawful options you offered, and a record of the work actually performed. This protects you if the client later complains or if the matter is reviewed.
You should also consider whether continuing the retainer is appropriate. If the client is directing you toward unlawful conduct, you may need to terminate the engagement, return the unused retainer, and preserve your records. Ethical practice means the client's desired outcome never overrides the legal limits on your authority.