Is It Worth It to Hire a Private Investigator?

Sometimes you find yourself at a crossroads. Whether it’s a cheating partner, corporate espionage, job partnering and recruitment, missing assets, or a lost family member, you just don’t know where to begin.

Let’s say you start, and the emotional toll becomes so taxing that the people you are investigating realize they’ve been made, change their game, and get the better of you. Or sometimes the detective in you hits a wall, and it finally hits you that you lack any forensic knowledge, whether old school or digital.

You don't have the subject matter expertise, a little emotional intelligence, and worst of all, you lack discretion. The end game is you destroying all the leads you have. And who knows, making the investigation harder. The only question remaining is, “Was it worth it? Should you have hired a private investigator?

The Role of a Private Investigator

A private investigator conducts investigations on your behalf, your business, or legal entities. Their work spans across background checks and surveillance to fraud investigations and missing person cases. Let's say you hire a PI, on your behalf, they will obtain and analyze information that might have otherwise been inaccessible.

Apart from skills, they possess a unique set of tools and resources.  That's all thanks to their backgrounds in law enforcement or legal professions, which equip them with the sources,  knowledge, and experience needed to navigate complex situations. Be it meticulous research, surveillance, and sometimes undercover operations you can count on them. Whether there is abundant info or fragmented, PIs can cut through the noise to provide clear, actionable insights.

Cost of Hiring a Private Investigator to Follow Someone Discreetly

In the USA, private investigators charge between $100 and $300 per hour but expect to pay slightly more for discreet surveillance. The activities and technologies used in discreet surveillance are more advanced to help unearth the truth without anyone's knowledge.  Further, everything must be done in strict compliance with privacy laws and ethical expectations. Martin PI provides discreet surveillance services at affordable rates.  Our teams will follow the money, track the person’s movements, and dig up their activities and histories, offline and online, to get you the evidence you need.

Key Scenarios to Hire a Private Investigator

Personal Matters:

Approximately 20 % of married couples in the United States experience infidelity at some point in their marriages. Beyond that  PIs can also assist in child custody disputes, locating missing persons, and verifying the background of potential partners.

Business Concerns:

In the corporate world, the need to hire a PI often arises from suspicions of employee misconduct, theft, or fraud. Today nearly  96% of employers conduct at least one type of background screening before hiring an employee but it's not even enough to beat mere resume fraud.  

PIs will do background checks on employees, and get to know the authenticity of the resume, and reputation of potential business partners. Additionally, they can help in intellectual property investigations and competitive intelligence gathering.

Legal Cases 

Circumstances such as locating and interviewing witnesses are now forcing attorneys to rely on PIs. They are key to conducting surveillance and uncovering hidden assets, all of which can be pivotal in a court of law.

The Cost of Hiring a Private Investigator

The cost of hiring a private investigator depends on the complexity of the case, the location, and the investigator’s experience and reputation. Speaking of which, the general fee per hour is about  $50 to $200. 

Yet there can be flat fees, commonly on background checks, missing person cases, or locating assets, which range from $500 to $5,000, depending on the scope of the investigation. Lastly, long-term cases may call for retainers of up to  $1,000 to $5,000.

Final thoughts: Evaluating the Worth

In the end, the decision to hire a private investigator weighs against benefits. In reality, the information and evidence provided by a PI justifies the financial cost. Take the example of a corporate setting, uncovering fraud or preventing a bad hire may just save your company large sums of money and reputation. Traversing to personal matters, peace of mind can never be bargained for with anything. 

Private investigators are the vessels for such peace and clarity. It doesn't matter if it's confirming suspicions of infidelity, ascertaining the safety of a child in a custodian dispute, or locating a long-lost family member. Simply put, the impact of a PI's work often extends beyond financial considerations.