Legal Authority
This domain tests the legal boundaries of private investigative work: what a PI may lawfully do as a private citizen, when surveillance and recording are permitted, and which statutes restrict access to information. The exam expects you to distinguish PI authority from police authority and to recognize when a technique becomes a crime or a civil violation.
No police powers
- A PI is a private citizen. You cannot conduct searches, compel statements, demand identification, or exercise police authority. NCGS 15A-404 allows a private person to arrest without a warrant for a felony, or a misdemeanor amounting to a breach of the peace, committed in the person’s presence; the person must then take the arrestee before a magistrate or officer without unnecessary delay. This is a narrow citizen’s-arrest power, not a general investigative authority.
- Entering private property without consent can be trespass, even if the PI is trying to observe something visible from a public place. Public-vantage surveillance is generally safer than entering curtilage or posted property.
- NCGS 15A-287 is a one-party-consent wiretap statute: a PI who is a party to a conversation may record it without the other party’s consent. Recording a conversation between two other people without consent is unlawful interception. Do not record calls or meetings you are not part of.
- Records access is statute-specific. The Driver’s Privacy Protection Act limits DMV record use to permissible purposes; the FCRA governs consumer reports; the GLBA prohibits pretexting for financial information; HIPAA restricts health information. Unauthorized access to computer systems can violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
- A PI may serve civil process if at least 18, not a party, and otherwise qualified under the Rules of Civil Procedure.
Worked example
A client asks a PI to record a meeting between the subject and the subject’s business partner. The PI will not attend. Recording that conversation without a party’s consent violates NC’s wiretap statute, even though the PI is hired for a lawful purpose. If the PI is a participant in the conversation, one-party consent permits recording.
Traps that cost marks
Assuming North Carolina requires two-party consent, assuming a PI can search a home or phone, or treating a pretext call to obtain financial records as ordinary investigative work. Impersonating law enforcement is never a lawful technique.
Key points
- PIs have no police powers; citizen’s arrest is narrow and based on presence.
- NC is a one-party-consent recording state; non-party recording is unlawful interception.
- Trespass and curtilage rules limit surveillance even on private property.
- DPPA, FCRA, GLBA, HIPAA, and CFAA restrict records and data access.
- PIs may serve process only if qualified and not a party to the case.