The Intern Alone on a Tuesday
Marcus has held a Class "CC" private investigator intern license for 14 months, sponsored by Bayline Investigations, a Class "A" agency whose qualifying licensee, Dana, is the only Class "C" on staff. Dana leaves for a two-week vacation and tells Marcus to "run the Ortiz file" alone: take a recorded statement from an insurance claimant and handle the client meeting. The client says, "Bring your gun - this guy gets aggressive." Marcus owns a 9mm, holds a Florida concealed-weapons license, and has never applied for a Class "G." At the end of the meeting the client offers to pay Marcus $1,200 directly instead of paying Bayline, "to keep it simple."
1. Which of the three requests - running the file alone, carrying the gun, and being paid directly - can Marcus lawfully accept? Explain the reasoning for each.
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Running the file alone: partially, and only with real supervision in place. A Class "CC" intern may perform investigative work, but the license exists only inside a licensed agency structure: the intern must be employed by a licensed agency and sponsored/directed by a Class "C" licensee or qualifying manager. Two weeks with no Class "C" available to direct the work is not supervision. Dana must designate another qualifying supervisor (or the agency must pause the assignment). Marcus also may not hold himself out to the client as the licensed investigator on the case.
Carrying the gun: no. Armed investigative work requires a Class "G" statewide firearms license under Part II of Chapter 493, tied to employment by a licensed agency and to firearms training and requalification. Marcus holds none of that.
Direct payment: no. Fees for licensed investigative services are earned by and paid to the licensed agency; Marcus is compensated by his employer as an employee. A side arrangement with the client converts him, in effect, into an unlicensed independent operator and creates a record problem for both him and Bayline.
Bottom line: he may work the file only under a designated supervisor, unarmed, with all fees and communications flowing through Bayline - and he should confirm the supervision arrangement in writing before he does anything.
2. The client insists the gun is "no big deal" because Marcus has a concealed-weapons license. How should Marcus respond, and what actually happens if he complies?
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Why the client is wrong. A Florida concealed-weapons license governs carrying a firearm as a private citizen. It says nothing about carrying a firearm while providing licensed investigative services - that is a separate authorization (Class "G") that Marcus does not have. Two different statutes, two different permissions.
What Marcus says. Short and non-negotiable: "I'm not authorized to work armed. I can meet him in a public place, bring a second investigator as a witness, move the meeting to your attorney's office, or reschedule for a time when we can have law enforcement present. I can't do the gun."
What happens if he complies anyway.
- Criminal exposure for unlicensed armed activity, plus immediate jeopardy to his intern license - and a disciplinary record that follows him when he applies for the Class "C."
- Derivative exposure for Bayline: the agency's license and its insurance coverage are both on the line for an act outside the scope of authorized duties.
- If the meeting goes bad, the shooting is defended with a firearm he was not licensed to carry on that assignment - which converts a clean self-defense narrative into a licensing violation.
Key judgment: the client's comfort is not authority. The licensee's own scope of authorization controls, and Marcus should document the refusal in the file.