2020 Colorado Revised Statutes
Title 12 - Professions And Occupations
Article 160. Private Investigators
Section 12-160-106. Exemptions.

[Editor's note: This article 160 is in a one-year wind-up period. For further explanation regarding the wind-up period, see the editor's note following the article heading.] (1) This article 160 does not apply to:

1. A collection agency or consumer reporting agency, as defined in section 5-16-103 (3) and (6), respectively;

2. A person conducting an investigation on the person's own behalf, or an employee ofan employer conducting an internal investigation on behalf of his or her employer;

3. An attorney licensed to practice law in this state, an employee of a licensed attorney,or a person under contract to perform paralegal services for a licensed attorney;

4. A certified peace officer of a law enforcement agency operating in his or her officialcapacity;

5. (I) A certified public accountant certified or authorized to provide accounting services in the state pursuant to article 100 of this title 12;

2. An employee of a certified public accountant;

3. An employee or affiliate of an accounting firm registered pursuant to section 12100-114; or

4. A person who conducts forensic accounting, fraud investigations, or other relatedanalysis of financial transactions based on information that is either publicly available or provided by clients or other third parties and who is:

1. An accountant or public accountant who is not regulated by the state;

2. A certified fraud examiner; or

3. An employee or independent contractor under the guidance of an accountant, publicaccountant, or certified fraud examiner;

6. A person who aggregates public records and charges a fee for accessing the aggregated public records data;

7. A person employed by an insurance company who is conducting a claims adjustmentor claims investigation for the purposes of an insurance claim;

8. An investigator employed or contracted by a public or governmental agency;

9. A journalist or genealogist;

10. A person serving process within the state, performing his or her duties in compliancewith the Colorado or federal rules of civil procedure or in accordance with applicable foreign state court rules or laws pertaining to service of foreign process within this state, or performing any task associated with effecting service of process, all of which includes inquiries related to effecting proper service of process and resulting supporting proofs, declarations, affidavits of service, or declarations or affidavits of due diligence to support alternative methods of service of process; except that a process server who performs private investigations outside the efforts to effect service of process is not exempt from the licensing requirements of this article 160 and must obtain a license under this article 160 in order to lawfully perform those private investigations;

11. A person attempting to recover a fugitive when that person furnished bail and islicensed under article 2 or 23 of title 10 or is acting pursuant to a contract with or at the request of a person who furnished bail;

12. An owner, employee, or independent contractor of an agency conducting an investigation to determine the origin and cause of a fire or explosion;

13. An owner, employee, or independent contractor of an agency conducting an investigation for cause analysis or failure analysis where the investigation is conducted by an engineer licensed pursuant to part 2 of article 120 of this title 12 acting within his or her area of expertise and within the scope of the practice of engineering; or

14. Any other person licensed under this title 12 who is practicing within the scope of hisor her practice as defined in this title 12.

Source: L. 2019: Entire title R&RE with relocations, (HB 19-1172), ch. 136, p. 1013, § 1, effective October 1.

Editor's note: This section is similar to former § 12-58.5-105 as it existed prior to 2019.