Are the Investigator and Agency Properly Licensed?
Ask for the legal name and license number of both the individual who will perform regulated investigative work and the agency accepting the engagement. Florida distinguishes a Class “C” private investigator license, a supervised Class “CC” intern license, and a Class “A” private investigative agency license; the FDACS licensing overview explains the classifications and exemptions.
Verify the names and displayed status in the official FDACS license search. Ask who supervises an intern, whether a subcontractor or out-of-state investigator will participate, and which agency is responsible for the work. Florida section 493.6111 requires a licensed agency to include its agency number in a written bid or offer; confirm that detail in the current statutory text.
Have You Handled This Exact Kind of Decision?
“Years of experience” is less useful than relevant experience with the factual question, environment, sources, and intended use. Ask the investigator to describe a comparable assignment without revealing another client's identity or confidential facts. Listen for a repeatable method: defining the question, verifying identifiers, selecting sources, corroborating results, documenting gaps, and stopping when additional work is unlikely to change the decision.
Ask what starting information is required, what could make the assignment infeasible, and which outcome categories are possible. A credible answer includes confirmation, contradiction, partial findings, and an inconclusive result. If the evidence is for litigation, employment, insurance, a regulated transaction, or a criminal complaint, ask whether counsel or the relevant official process should define the scope first. Case familiarity does not allow a provider to promise an arrest, recovery, admissibility ruling, successful service, or favorable judgment.
What Methods Are Proposed—and What Is Off Limits?
Request a plain-language explanation of each proposed method and how it answers the question. For surveillance, ask about lawful vantage points, staffing, time windows, identification standards, lost contact, safety, and stopping rules. For records research, ask which original records will confirm database leads. For interviews, ask how identity, consent to speak, attribution, and exact-versus-summarized statements will be documented.
Also ask what the investigator will refuse to do. A professional should reject requests involving unauthorized account access, hacking, protected records without authority, trespass, false police status, or knowing violations of a statute or court order. Florida's disciplinary statute addresses misconduct, unauthorized release of investigative information, impersonation, and knowingly assisting unlawful conduct. “The client asked” is not a legal basis.
What Will It Cost and What Will I Receive?
Ask whether billing is hourly, flat-rate, milestone-based, or a combination. A useful written scope identifies the retainer, hourly rates by role, minimum billing increments, database or records fees, mileage, travel time, lodging, subcontractor costs, rush charges, taxes if applicable, and the approval threshold for exceeding the initial estimate. Clarify whether unused retainers are refundable and when invoices or activity summaries are provided.
Define the deliverable before work begins. It might be a written report, declaration, chronology, source list, photographs, video with observation log, authenticated public records, witness memorandum, or an oral briefing. Ask whether original files and metadata are preserved, how corrections are handled, and whether testimony or attorney conferences are separately billed. Compare proposals by authorized work and decision value—not just the retainer. See the Florida private investigator cost guide for common pricing variables.
How Will Evidence, Privacy, and Uncertainty Be Handled?
Ask how the provider receives sensitive files, limits access, names and stores working copies, preserves originals, records collection dates, and disposes of information after the retention period. Determine who receives updates and what happens if the investigation exposes unrelated sensitive material. Avoid sending passwords, unnecessary medical or financial records, or large unfiltered exports before a secure intake method and lawful need are established.
A report should distinguish direct observation, originating records, witness statements, database leads, client-supplied assertions, and analysis. Ask how identity conflicts, stale records, missing time, and unverified claims will be labeled. An investigator who can explain uncertainty is more useful than one who converts every lead into a conclusion.
Finally, ask: “What fact would make you recommend that I do not hire you?” The answer may reveal that police, counsel, a bank, an insurer, a regulator, or no further action is the better first route. Use the hiring decision quiz before requesting proposals, then submit a focused case-scope request.