Legal Research

Recently a number of entities who purchase Georgia driving records from MVR vendors received a letter from a paralegal with the Department of Driver Services (DDS). The letter demands that they obtain a private investigation license in order to continue obtaining these records. This is the apparently due to legislative changes made to the statutes regulating the licensing of PIs, and the DDS felt it was necessary to monitor requestors.

However, many of the entities who are receiving this letter are statutorily exempt from obtaining the PI license. These exempt entities include, among others, attorneys and consumer reporting agencies. The DDS paralegal evidently did not attempt to first determine if the requester was an attorney or consumer reporting agency, or at least inform the requester about the exemptions in the demand letter. This created quite a mix-up and upset a number of DPPA permissible users. 
The law which regulates the licensing of private investigators is § 43-38-3. If you recently received a demand letter and you are either an attorney or a consumer reporting agency, it would be good to know that the language about the exemption is found at § 43-38-14. Another statute regulating the release of driving records is § 40-5-2. This statute states that if the requester submits written instructions and consent of the driver, then the requester may receive a copy of the record.
So unless you qualify for an exemption or have written consent, it is suggested to make arrangements to obtain your PI license in order to obtain records.

The Georgia Code can be found at www.lexis-nexis.com/hottopics/gacode/default.asp.