Legal and Ethical Conduct: Permissible Practices, Confidentiality, and Conflicts
Duty and confidentiality
A private investigator owes the client competence, loyalty, and confidentiality. Put scope, fees, reporting, and data handling in an engagement letter. Confidentiality is not absolute: a court can compel facts, and a client cannot authorize perjury or destruction of evidence. When retained by a law firm for litigation, communications may be protected by attorney-client privilege or work product, but only if the PI is acting as the lawyer's agent for legal advice and the privilege is not waived. Facts the PI observes are generally not privileged.
Conflicts and represented persons
Run a conflict check before accepting work. Decline or disclose prior work for an adverse party, personal relationships with subjects, financial interests in the outcome, and simultaneous representation of clients with adverse interests. If a lawyer retains you, New York Rules of Professional Conduct 4.2 apply to you as the lawyer's agent: do not communicate about the subject of the representation with a person you know to be represented by counsel, absent counsel's consent or legal authorization.
Prohibited practices
Do not impersonate police, pretext for phone or financial records, access computers without authorization, record conversations you are not party to, trespass, bribe officials, threaten subjects, or target people based on protected characteristics. Bill and report truthfully.
Worked example
A defense attorney asks the investigator to call the plaintiff directly to ask about injuries. The investigator knows plaintiff's counsel has appeared. Correct response: do not call; contact plaintiff's counsel or use formal discovery. A friendly tone does not remove the ethical bar.
Traps
Believing privilege covers every PI file; thinking a client can waive the other side's rights; and assuming a represented person's informal consent permits direct contact.