FAQ

These questions and answers below will help you understand the process to hire a Private Investigator and will make your interaction more comfortable.

First and foremost, Private Investigators have no more authority than a private citizen. We are not exempt from the laws of the land, we have no authority to speed, stop traffic, trespass on private property, detain people or compel people to cooperate with our investigation. Also, we are not legal counsel. Though we have a strong understanding of the laws that affect our industry and /or the laws that might come into effect because of our investigative results, any conversations concerning such legal ramifications should be consulted with your own legal representative. Lastly, we are not magicians, mind readers or super heroes! We can’t make evidence appear from thin air, we can’t see through walls and can’t tell what your partner is thinking about when he/she doing something out of the ordinary. What we offer to our clients is an unbiased and professional point of view. With our experience, training and resourceful connections, we are able to consistently provide results to our clients.

ABSOLUTELY! All contacts, information and conversations will be kept confidential.

We will offer a free one-time 30-45 minute telephone or in-office consultation to answer your questions. If you require an Investigator to attend to your location to provide the consultation, we will charge $90.00 for the first hour and $50.00 for any additional hours it takes to provide this consultation. This amount is collected regardless of you hiring our services. If you hire our services, we will provide this equivalent amount as a credit towards your final invoice.

Most investigations are billed on an “hourly” basis. Some investigations, mostly dependant on the complexity and the lengthy time line, can be billed using a “day” rate. Please call for our current rates.

We accept Visa, MasterCard, Pay Pal and direct bank transfer. Local clients can also pay using cash or cheque. By providing us with a copy of your credit card, you confirm that you have lawful use of such credit card and that you authorized Prime Investigations Ltd to withdraw any outstanding amounts for services rendered.

Yes we do. We will charge a 3-hour minimum for each individual surveillance session. We would be happy to explain this policy to you. Please do not hesitate to ask for a detailed explanation.

Our standard retainer is $1000.00. Any unused retainer portion will be refunded to you at the conclusion of the file or at your immediate request.

After your free consultation, we will open a file, gather information and prepare for the investigation. If you decide to cancel your investigation request prior to us starting the actual investigation, we will charge your retainer $150.00 for the file administration and investigation preparation. Out of area/Fly-In services: A cancellation fee equivalent to 3 hours of the agreed investigation rate will apply as costs for file administration and investigation preparation. In addition, any associated costs incurred during the planning/staging of an investigation that cannot be refunded from the source will be charged to the client. Example: Flights, Hotel cancellation fees, equipment rentals. Please feel free to ask about this policy when you contact us.

After 2 months of inactivity, we will begin charging $25.00 per month as an Administrative Review Fee until either you instruct us to close the file and return any remaining monies in your account or until your account reaches zero ($0.00). Please note that after 2 years of inactivity, we will destroy all information in the file and you will forfeit all remaining monies in your account.

Information such as a recent photo, the subject’s schedule, where he/she works, what he/she drives. You should also tell us if you have had any kind of investigations conducted on this person in the past. Investigations conducted either by yourself, by a friend on your behalf, by a collections agency or by another private investigations agency is very relevant to our current investigation. Even conversations about “watching” or “following” this person, or catching this person in a lie recently, or recently confronting this person about your suspicions are all factors needed to ensure a safe and discreet investigation. PLEASE be upfront and honest with us. We are here to help you to find answers.

The easy answer is “as much notice as possible”. We also understand that sometimes, you are not aware of the “event” until the last minute. We will try to accommodate any last minute requests as best we can.

If you make an investigation request within 4 hours or less of the start of the investigation time, we will charge time-and-a-half (x1.5) our normal rate for our time and efforts to respond to your request.

Our hourly rate is consistent except for certain days, specifically, Valentine’s Day, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, New Years Eve and New Years Day. Those day, the rate will be time-and-a-half (x1.5)

No, you don’t need to. We pledge to do everything we possibly can to get your results within our current pricing structure.

Yes, we primarily conduct surveillance with a video camera. You will get a video of the activities and photos from the video footage.

When the retainer is depleted you have the option of providing more retainer to continue with the investigation or stopping the investigation.

We conduct work on your behalf with the sincere intent that you will honor your obligation. However, the confidentiality of our relationship is also contingent upon you paying what is rightfully owed for our services.

At the conclusion of the investigation, we can offer to you a formal report, a video CD of our surveillance video, video-still photos and any remaining funds from your retainer account. There is an Administrative Charge for a report and video/picture preparation. Please call for current rate.

Normally, we will keep information in a file for one (1) year unless you instruct us to destroy the information at an earlier time line. After the year time line, we will destroy all information within our files.

We are more than happy to help you and your Counsel. If you require our Investigators to attend Court or a Hearing or a Questioning to testify with our evidence, we have a 1/2 day charge and a full day charge for in-town attendance. A 1/2 day charge for attendance is $500.00 (plus disbursements) per investigator for attendance up to 4 hours. A full day charge for attendance is $1000.00 (plus disbursements) per investigator for attendance between 4-8 hours. Any additional time beyond the 8 hours of the same day is charged at $150.00/hr. For out-of-town attendance, we charge our hourly rate from the start of our office until the return of our investigator to our office plus all necessary costs and disbursements. Rates for such will be calculated at the time of the required service. Any preparation work would be charged at our current hourly rate in addition to our attendance rate. Any cancellation of our attendance within 24 hours of the requested time will incur a charge of 150.00

Only certain information can be traced to a previous/past activity.

Yes. There are privacy protocols that we follow before we release the information. See our Policy section.

It depends on what purpose you intend to use the information for. We suggest that you consult your lawyer to fully answer that question.

Once we conduct a preliminary telephone consultation, we can offer to you our discreet office location for additional consultation.

We take meetings by appointment only.  With the Covid concerns, we are now happy to take Zoom meetings at your convenience.

The process is just the same as if you were local. Using telephone and email, we can provide a consultation, receive instructions and send results to you.