Legal Foundations and Limits on Investigation
Domain 2: Legal Foundations and Limits on Investigation
This domain tests whether you can investigate aggressively without crossing constitutional, statutory, or tort lines. The Fourth Amendment and Michigan Constitution constrain government action; a private investigator is usually not a state actor, but that changes if you act at police direction or become an instrument of the state. Even without constitutional limits, tort and criminal law apply.
Core rules
- Privacy torts: intrusion upon seclusion (highly offensive prying into a private matter), public disclosure of private facts, false light, and appropriation. Consent, public view, and legitimate business purpose are defenses, not blanket immunity.
- Trespass: MCL 750.552 prohibits entering or remaining on another's property without authority. Curtilage, locked gates, and posted land require clear permission.
- Eavesdropping: Michigan's statute, MCL 750.539 et seq., restricts installing devices and recording private conversations. Do not record a conversation merely because you are nearby; participant status and consent matter.
- Stalking: MCL 750.411h and 750.411i prohibit repeated harassment that causes reasonable fear. Surveillance that is legal in isolation can become stalking when repeated and threatening.
Worked example
You are hired to verify a subject's residence. You photograph the house from a public sidewalk, then follow the subject into a private apartment lobby after a tenant opens the door. The sidewalk photo is generally defensible; entering the lobby without authority risks trespass, and continuing inside after being asked to leave strengthens the case. The correct move is to remain in public and document only what is visible.
Traps
"Private investigator" is not a search warrant. A camera does not create a right to see into a bathroom or bedroom window. A public record does not authorize harassment of the person named in it.