Glossary
Private Investigator Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential private investigator terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key private investigator vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in private investigator training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Affidavit
- A sworn written statement.
- Asset search
- Finding a person’s property and accounts.
- Background check
- Researching a person’s history.
- Billable hours
- Time charged to clients.
- Chain of custody
- Tracking evidence handling.
- Due diligence
- Investigating before a business decision.
- FCRA
- Fair Credit Reporting Act.
- GLBA
- Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act on financial privacy.
- Pretexting
- Using false pretenses to get information, often illegal.
- Process service
- Delivering legal documents.
- Public records
- Records available to the public, such as court files.
- Retainer
- Advance payment for services.
- Skip trace
- Locating someone who is hard to find.
- Surveillance
- Watching and recording a subject’s activities.
- Workers’ comp fraud
- False claims for workplace injury benefits.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Private Investigator practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Private Investigator training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.