You won in a Mesa court, now they have vanished: finding a debtor

Court judgment papers and notes on a Mesa kitchen table while planning a search for a debtor who moved

You did everything right. You sued the contractor who walked off the job, or the tenant who left your Mesa rental trashed, or the friend who borrowed money and stopped answering. The justice court on Javelina Avenue gave you a judgment. And now the person is gone: the phone is disconnected, the apartment is rented to someone else, and the truck is no longer in the driveway.

A judgment does not collect itself. Before your lawyer can garnish wages or levy an account, you usually need to know where the person lives, works or banks. Finding them is classic private investigator work, usually called a skip trace.

Why Mesa makes this both easier and harder

Mesa is big and spread out, and the East Valley is one housing market. Someone who leaves an apartment in west Mesa may only have moved to Gilbert, Apache Junction or Queen Creek. That helps, because Arizona records follow them.

It is harder because so many people move through Mesa. Winter residents, students, people renting by the month: the population turns over, and plenty of debtors know how to keep a low profile.

What you are paying for

Arizona's definition of private investigation, in A.R.S. 32-2401, explicitly includes finding people's whereabouts. What you want back is simple: a current address or employer, and a plain note of how it was confirmed.

To get there, a licensed private investigator uses data services that are not sold to the public, along with public records you could search yourself if you had the time: other court cases in Maricopa County and beyond (people who owe one creditor often owe others), property records, business filings with the Arizona Corporation Commission and contractor licenses. Free people-search websites are often stale, which is why a database hit is usually checked before it is reported to you.

What a private investigator legally cannot get

This is where a lot of disappointment comes from, so it is better to know up front.

Bank account details obtained by pretending to be the person, or by tricking a bank employee, are illegal under federal law (15 U.S.C. 6821). Your lawyer gets bank information through the court's collection tools instead.
Motor vehicle records are protected by the federal Driver's Privacy Protection Act (18 U.S.C. 2721). Access is allowed only for permitted purposes, and a reputable private investigator will tell you which apply.
Credit reports are covered by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. 1681b), which limits who can pull them and why.

If someone offers to get you the debtor's bank balance by tomorrow, they are either lying or breaking the law, and either way it can damage your case.

Once you have them

Finding the debtor is useful for two things.

First, collection. With a current address and employer, your lawyer or the court's self-help resources can take the next steps to enforce the judgment.

Second, if the debtor was never properly served in the first place, or you need to serve them with new papers in a collection proceeding, you now have somewhere to send a certified process server. Some providers hold both a private investigator license and process server certification; ask. You can check any server's certification in the Arizona Supreme Court's directory.

What to give the private investigator

The more you start with, the faster and cheaper the search. Pull together:

full legal name, any nicknames or other names, and date of birth if you have it
the last known address and phone number
employer, trade or business name
vehicle descriptions and plates
names of a spouse, partner or relatives
a copy of your judgment, with the court and case number

Ask for a written quote and what you will receive at the end, typically a confirmed address and how it was verified.

Is it worth it?

For a small judgment, maybe not. A professional locate on top of collection costs can eat into what you recover. For larger amounts, or when the person has income or property worth going after, it often pays. A quick talk with your lawyer about collectability helps before you spend more.

Served & Found does not yet list private investigators based in Mesa itself, but you can browse private investigators serving the East Valley, every one of them a member of the Arizona Association of Licensed Private Investigators (AALPI). Our guide on how to verify an Arizona PI license takes two minutes. If the next step is serving papers, see process servers in Mesa. The Mesa page has the rest.

This is general information, not legal advice. Keep your judgment paperwork in one folder; the private investigator and your lawyer will both ask for it.

See the board: everyone in Mesa.