🔍 Skip Tracing vs Private Investigator
What’s the Difference? When Do You Need a Skip Tracer, When Do You Need a PI, and When Do You Need Both? — Complete Comparison Guide — 2025
📊 Understanding the Difference
Skip tracing and private investigation are related but distinct services. Understanding the difference helps you choose the right service for your needs — and avoid paying for more than you need: 📊
📌 Skip tracing is a specialized, database-driven service focused on locating people and identifying their assets. Skip tracers use proprietary databases, public records, credit bureau data, and cross-referencing techniques to find current addresses, phone numbers, employers, property, vehicles, and business interests. The work is primarily research-based and desk-based. Results are typically delivered in 24 hours or less.
📌 Private investigation is a broader service that encompasses skip tracing plus fieldwork — surveillance, witness interviews, undercover operations, evidence documentation, fraud investigation, and court testimony. PIs go into the field to observe, document, and gather evidence that cannot be obtained through databases alone.
Think of it this way: a skip tracer finds people and information. A private investigator does everything a skip tracer does plus boots-on-the-ground fieldwork. The question is whether your situation requires the additional fieldwork — or whether database-driven research will give you what you need. 🎯
📋 Head-to-Head Comparison
| Factor | 🔍 Skip Tracing | 🕵️ Private Investigator |
|---|---|---|
| Primary Function | Locate people, find addresses, employers, and assets through database research | All of the above plus surveillance, interviews, undercover work, and evidence documentation |
| Method | Database-driven research, public records, credit bureau data, cross-referencing | Database research + fieldwork, surveillance, physical observation, witness interviews |
| Turnaround | 24 hours or less for most searches | Hours to weeks depending on scope — surveillance cases can take days or weeks |
| Cost | Flat fee per search — affordable and predictable | Hourly rates ($75-$200/hr) plus expenses — costs can escalate quickly |
| Licensing | Varies by state — many states do not require a separate license for database research | Licensed in most states — required for surveillance, fieldwork, and testimony |
| Court Testimony | Typically provides written reports — does not testify in court | Can testify as a fact witness or expert witness about observations and findings |
| Best For | Service of process, judgment collection, debt recovery, heir location, employer identification | Surveillance, custody disputes, insurance fraud, complex litigation, evidence gathering |
🔍 When Skip Tracing Is All You Need
Service of Process
You need to find someone to serve a lawsuit. All you need is their current address. A skip trace delivers this in 24 hours or less — no PI needed.
Judgment Collection
You need the debtor’s current address, employer (for wage garnishment), and assets (for levies and liens). Skip tracing and asset searches provide all of this.
Child Support Enforcement
You need to find a non-custodial parent and their employer for income withholding. Skip tracing delivers both without fieldwork.
Tenant Recovery
A former tenant skipped out on rent. You need their new address and employer to file suit and garnish wages. Skip tracing handles this efficiently.
Heir Location
You need to find missing heirs for probate or estate distribution. Skip tracing locates heirs through database research and family connections.
Background Research
You need background information on a person or business — criminal records, civil judgments, property ownership, business affiliations. Database research provides this without surveillance.
🕵️ When You Need a Full-Service PI
Surveillance
You need to document someone’s behavior — a spouse’s activities in a divorce, a workers’ comp claimant’s physical capabilities, or an employee’s after-hours activities. Surveillance requires a licensed PI in the field.
Court Testimony
Your case may go to trial and you need a witness who can testify about what they personally observed. Licensed PIs can serve as fact witnesses and sometimes expert witnesses — skip tracers typically do not testify.
Fraud Investigation
Complex fraud investigations require interviews, document analysis, undercover contact, and evidence chain-of-custody management — all of which require PI-level services.
Witness Location and Interview
You need witnesses located AND interviewed — to obtain statements, assess credibility, or gather information about events. Witness interviews are fieldwork that goes beyond database research.
🤝 When You Need Both
Complex cases often benefit from both services used in sequence: 🤝
📌 Start with skip tracing. A skip trace provides the foundational intelligence — where the subject is, where they work, what they own. This information is faster and cheaper to obtain through database research. Results in 24 hours or less.
📌 Add PI services for fieldwork. Once you know where the subject is located, a PI can conduct surveillance, serve process, interview witnesses, or document behavior at the identified location. The skip trace intelligence makes the PI’s fieldwork more efficient and less expensive — no wasted time surveilling wrong addresses or searching for a subject who has moved.
📌 The combination is more effective than either alone. A PI without skip tracing intelligence is searching blind. A skip trace without follow-up fieldwork misses evidence that only physical observation can provide. Used together, they create a complete investigative picture.
🔍 Start with Skip Tracing — It’s Faster and More Affordable
Most cases start with a skip trace — find the person, identify their assets, and determine whether additional investigation is needed. Our professional skip tracing delivers results in 24 hours or less at a fraction of PI hourly rates. Over 20 years of experience serving attorneys, process servers, and debt collectors nationwide.
Order Skip Trace Now →❓ Frequently Asked Questions
📚 Related Resources
📋 Disclaimer
This guide is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. People Locator Skip Tracing provides professional skip tracing and investigation services — we do not provide legal advice or legal representation. Information current as of 2025.
