California’s Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) takes the position that, under the Private Investigator Act, any outside party hired to conduct an investigation of employee misconduct must be an attorney or a licensed private investigator.
Any non-attorney or unlicensed investigator who conducts an investigation or the entity that hires them as an outside party is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of $5,000, imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed one year or both fine and imprisonment.1
1. Bus. & Prof. Code secs. 7520 et seq.