F.A.Q.

Francis & Associates Inc., has always offered free consultations. As a matter of fact, this can be done in person at our office or over the phone. Whatever you decide, you will be informed of your options to get the job done.

As with other private investigation companies, our rates vary depending on the type of investigation you require and are competitive with other investigation companies in the area. We have no hidden charges and we don’t charge for phone updates, reports or video preparation. We can also work with any budget if reasonable to the type of case you request. Please contact our office directly for a free confidential consultation and we can discuss your case in detail and determine a budget that’s affordable and right for you.

All investigation cases are worked through a retainer paid by the client. Upon accepting your case, we will send you a retainer invoice to be paid before any work is conducted. This retainer invoice will have a breakdown of the services we are to do. This should alleviate any confusion about what services we provide for that retainer. At times, there may be a service or task that may be determined either not needed or unable to be undertaken at a later time. Therefore, that invoice service area will be substituted and applied to another requested task in the investigation.

Should the client request additional investigative tasks, the client will receive an additional retainer invoice listing those additional tasks. Payment for those tasks must be paid before any additional work is conducted.

We make it very simple with our invoicing retainers.

We cannot conduct surveillance on someone you either have a protective order filed against or have filed against you. If, during the scope of our investigation and we determine that you have a current or previous stalking charge filed against you, we cannot conduct surveillance on your behalf.

We cannot conduct locate investigations if you don’t have a lawful reason to know where the person you are looking for has relocated to. Before all locate investigations, we conduct a record search to determine if any protective orders are filed against either party.

We do not locate past relationships because that would not be a lawful reason for their new address.

In family court cases, we usually like working with your attorney if you have one. This is because we want to show the impartiality the courts like to see in family court cases. Also, your attorney would advise and provide us with the type or objectives he would like to see done so that this can be used in your court case.

If you do not have an attorney handling your case, call us so we can discuss your options. You must advise us of any protective orders filed by either party when we talk with you. If there are any protective orders, currently, we cannot conduct any surveillance on your behalf.

When working on any investigation assignment, our office would request everything that you have available for the individual so we could initiate immediate investigative efforts. Of course, information that you may not have available, we will obtain through our initial case preparation. We would also need known schedules which includes work schedule and vehicle information if known. Are there available pictures of the individual?

Unless, under certain circumstances, we do not work on cases that other private investigation companies have worked on. There are a lot of investigation companies out there who offer services that they are not qualified to do and do not have experience in. The previous investigation company also may have compromised the investigation by getting caught (Burned) or something worse, as in unethical practices. Therefore, we are unwilling to inherit the failures and legality problems of the previous company’s mistakes.

Our investigators go through extensive expectation of privacy training every quarter and to answer your question, Yes, we can and do legally obtain video of subjects inside those areas. The expectation of privacy does not exist inside a hotel or casino because of its commonly known your every move is monitored on video cameras throughout the property and in some areas, it’s even posted for those who are unaware.

The investigator assigned to work your case assignment will provide you with repeated updates throughout the day or the requested update schedule you require at the beginning of the case. These updates will be provided by voice, text or email as required by you the client.

Most states require private investigators to be licensed to practice. In the State of Nevada, the State of Nevada Private Investigators Licensing Board requires licenses for licensees and their investigative staff.

To verify a license in the State of Nevada, visit the State of Nevada Private Investigators Licensing Board.

We do not offer electronic surveillance for any cases. This type of activity is unethical and could substantially negatively affect the outcome of an investigation. Even though there are no known laws in the state of Nevada for electronic surveillance, there are civil statutes that can also negatively affect the outcome of an investigation.

Our agency has made it a policy to not work with any press releases or news outlets. The reasons for this are that we have no control over what they do or the outcome of their work.