2011 California Code
Business and Professions Code
DIVISION 3. PROFESSIONS AND VOCATIONS GENERALLY [5000 - 9998.8]
ARTICLE 3. Regulation, Licensing, and Registration
Section 7539

(a) Any licensee or officer, director, partner, or manager of a licensee may divulge to any law enforcement officer or district attorney, or his or her representative, any information he or she may acquire as to any criminal offense, but he or she shall not divulge to any other person, except as he or she may be required by law so to do, any information acquired by him or her except at the direction of the employer or client for whom the information was obtained.

(b) No licensee or officer, director, partner, manager, or employee of a licensee shall knowingly make any false report to his or her employer or client for whom information was being obtained.

(c) No written report shall be submitted to a client except by the licensee, qualifying manager, or a person authorized by one or either of them, and the person submitting the report shall exercise diligence in ascertaining whether or not the facts and information in the report are true and correct.

(d) No licensee, or officer, director, partner, manager, or employee of a licensee shall use a badge in connection with the official activities of the licensee s business.

(e) No licensee, or officer, director, partner, manager, or employee of a licensee, shall use a title, or wear a uniform, or use an insignia, or use an identification card, or make any statement with the intent to give an impression that he or she is connected in any way with the federal government, a state government, or any political subdivision of a state government.

(f) No licensee, or officer, partner, qualified manager, or employee of a licensee shall use any identification to indicate that he or she is licensed as a private investigator other than the official identification card issued by the bureau or the business card regularly used by the business. However, a licensee may issue an employer identification card.

(g) No licensee, or officer, director, partner, manager, or employee of a licensee, shall enter any private building or portion thereof, except premises commonly accessible to the public, without the consent of the owner or of the person in legal possession thereof.

(h) No licensee shall permit an employee or agent in his or her own name to advertise, engage clients, furnish reports or present bills to clients, or in any manner whatever conduct business for which a license is required under this chapter. All business of the licensee shall be conducted in the name of and under the control of the licensee.

(i) No licensee, officer, director, partner, manager, or employee of a licensee shall knowingly and directly solicit employment from any person who has directly sustained bodily injury or from that person s spouse or other family member to obtain authorization on behalf of the injured person as an investigator to investigate the accident or act which resulted in injury or death to that person or damage to the property of that person. Nothing in this subdivision shall prohibit the soliciting of employment from that injured person s attorney, insurance company, self-insured administrator, insurance adjuster, employer, or any other person having an indirect interest in the investigation of the injury. This subdivision shall not apply to any business agent or attorney employed by a labor organization. No licensee, officer, director, partner, or manager of a licensee shall pay or compensate any of his or her employees or agents on the basis of a bonus, bounty, or quota system whereby a premium is placed on the number of employer or client rule violations or infractions purportedly discovered as a result of any investigation made by a licensee.

(j) No licensee shall use a fictitious business name in connection with the official activities of the licensee s business, except as provided by the bureau.

(Added by Stats. 1994, Ch. 1285, Sec. 4. Effective January 1, 1995.)