Miami Private InvestigationsSouthwest Florida at a glance
- Our base: one office, in Coral Gables. Naples, Fort Myers and the rest of the region are a service area we travel to, not a branch.
- Trial court: the 20th Judicial Circuit (Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry, Lee). Appeals go to the Sixth District Court of Appeal in Lakeland.
- Main courthouses: Collier County Courthouse in Naples; Lee County Justice Center in Fort Myers.
- Size: Lee County counted 760,822 people in 2020 and Collier County 375,752.
- Typical matters: divorce and alimony, time-sharing, injury and insurance claims, backgrounds and assets, hard-to-find people, defense investigation.
- Credentials: FDACS agency license A1800135, veteran-led, bilingual.
Clients in Collier and Lee often have lives that stretch beyond the Gulf Coast: a second home, a company registered elsewhere, family in Miami or up north. A matter that starts in Port Royal can end with records in three counties.
Who do we serve in Southwest Florida, and from where?
Plainly: Miami Private Investigations has no office, mailbox or local phone line in Naples, Fort Myers or anywhere else on the Gulf Coast. Our investigators work from Suite 470 at 4000 Ponce de Leon Blvd in Coral Gables and go to the region when a case needs them there. Every call goes to (305) 686-7826.
The region is larger than people expect. The Census Bureau's 2020 redistricting file (P.L. 94-171) counts 760,822 residents in Lee County, 375,752 in Collier, 186,847 in Charlotte, 39,619 in Hendry and 12,126 in Glades. The circuit lists court locations in all five (20th Circuit court locations). Because subjects often live in one county and work in another, we plan for more than one set of records.
Which Southwest Florida communities do we cover?
Naples and greater Collier County
The City of Naples itself is small, with 19,115 residents in 2020. Most people with a "Naples" address actually live in unincorporated Collier County, in Census-designated places such as Golden Gate (25,321), Pelican Bay (6,660), Naples Manor (5,132), Naples Park (5,092), Vineyards (3,883), Lely (3,694) and Pine Ridge (1,717). A mailing address is not a municipality, which matters for records and service. Collier cases are heard at the Collier County Courthouse, 3315 Tamiami Trail East, Naples, FL 34112 (20th Circuit). Inland, Immokalee (24,557) and Ave Maria (6,242) are Collier communities too.
Fort Myers
Fort Myers had 86,395 residents in 2020 and is home to the Lee County Justice Center, 1700 Monroe Street, Fort Myers, FL 33901, with the Justice Center Tower and Annex at 2075 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd (20th Circuit). Nearby are Lehigh Acres (114,287), North Fort Myers (42,719), Iona (16,908) and the Town of Fort Myers Beach (5,582). Florida Gulf Coast University sits on an 800-acre campus at 10501 FGCU Blvd. S. (FGCU), and Southwest Florida International Airport is run by the Lee County Port Authority (LCPA).
Cape Coral
Cape Coral is Lee County's largest city: 194,016 people in 2020, more than twice the size of Fort Myers. Besides the downtown complex, the 20th Circuit lists a Lee Government Center – Cape Coral location at 1039 SE 9th Place, Cape Coral, FL 33990 (20th Circuit). Pine Island's St. James City (3,876), Pine Island Center (1,942) and Matlacha (598) are also in Lee County, and places that small call for a lighter surveillance footprint.
Bonita Springs and Estero
Bonita Springs (53,644) and the Village of Estero (36,939) are in Lee County, not Collier. A matter that begins at a North Naples address can cross into Lee within a short drive, which changes the courthouse, the clerk and the records we search.
Marco Island
Marco Island is a Collier County city of 15,760 residents, so its matters go to the courthouse on Tamiami Trail East in Naples and its records sit with the Collier Clerk. Before committing field time to an island address, we confirm that the subject is actually staying there rather than at another property.
Charlotte, Hendry and Glades
The rest of the circuit is covered too. The Charlotte County Justice Center is at 350 E. Marion Avenue, Punta Gorda (Punta Gorda 19,471; Port Charlotte 60,625). The Hendry County Courthouse is at 25 E. Hickpochee in LaBelle (LaBelle 4,966; Clewiston 7,327), and the Glades County Courthouse is at 500 Avenue “J” in Moore Haven (1,566), all per the circuit's locations pages.
Which courts and clerks handle these cases?
Trial-level civil, family, probate and criminal cases in all five counties belong to the 20th Judicial Circuit. Florida's court system assigns appeals from the 9th, 10th and 20th circuits to the Sixth District Court of Appeal in Lakeland (flcourts.gov), so older guidance naming a different appeals court is out of date.
Files come from the county clerks. The Collier County Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller has an online records search. The Lee County Clerk of Court publishes court case records and an online case inquiry. Company filings statewide are on Sunbiz. We read those systems before any fieldwork.
What do Southwest Florida clients hire an investigator for?
Divorce, alimony and hidden money
Florida grants a divorce when the marriage is irretrievably broken (s. 61.052), so an affair is not grounds by itself. It can still matter financially: the court "may consider the adultery of either spouse and any resulting economic impact" when deciding alimony (s. 61.08), and the 2023 reform in CS/SB 1416 ended permanent alimony. Spending marital money on someone else, or moving it, can justify an unequal split when it happened within two years before filing or afterward (s. 61.075). Where a spouse holds a boat, a second home or an LLC, our asset checks and infidelity investigations are aimed at those questions.
Time-sharing disputes
Florida starts from a rebuttable presumption that equal time-sharing is in a child's best interests (s. 61.13(2)(c)1). Changing that takes evidence under the best-interest factors in s. 61.13(3). Our child custody investigations document what happens during a parent's time, from public places, without coaching or involving the child.
Injury, disability and insurance claims
For carriers, employers and defense firms, claim investigations record a claimant's activity in public, with times and places logged. Crash and premises cases along I-75 go through our personal injury investigation service. We report observations; whether someone is hurt is for doctors and the court.
Backgrounds, due diligence and locating people
Companies use background investigations and corporate due diligence before hiring an executive or buying a business. When a witness, debtor or party has moved, skip tracing and difficult-service process work pick up the trail. Defense lawyers use our criminal defense investigations.
What a Florida PI can and can't legally do in Southwest Florida
A Florida license covers gathering information about a person's conduct, movements and whereabouts and securing evidence for court (s. 493.6101). It carries no police power. In practice:
Allowed: watching and filming from public roads, beaches open to the public and businesses; searching court, property and corporate records; interviewing people who agree to talk.
- No gated entry without permission. Walking into a posted community, a private dock or a clubhouse without authorization is trespass (s. 810.08, s. 810.09).
- No secret recording of conversations. Florida requires every party's consent; a violation is a third-degree felony (s. 934.03), and the recording cannot be used as evidence (s. 934.06).
- No hidden tracker on someone's car or boat. Investigators get no general exception, and a divorce filing is presumed to withdraw a spouse's earlier consent (s. 934.425).
- No lying to get bank or phone records (15 U.S.C. § 6821; s. 817.484), and no posing as law enforcement (s. 843.08).
- No harassment. Stalking law turns on conduct that "serves no legitimate purpose" (s. 784.048); lawful surveillance stays well away from it.
More detail is in our Florida Statute 493 guide.
What evidence and report will you receive?
- Unedited original photos and video, time-stamped, kept separately from any review clips.
- A running log of each observation, including stretches when nothing happened.
- Record findings with their source cited.
- The observing investigator's name, so the material can be authenticated (s. 90.901) at a deposition or hearing.
Evidence still has to be relevant (s. 90.401) and survive the court's balancing test (s. 90.403), and a party's own statements are treated differently from other hearsay (s. 90.803). Attorneys describe working with us on the testimonials page.
What affects the timeline and cost of a Southwest Florida case?
We scope each case rather than publish a price list. The factors:
- Travel from Coral Gables, planned and agreed up front; consecutive field days keep it efficient.
- How many days and investigators. A fixed address may need one person; a mobile subject moving between Collier and Lee may need two with separate vehicles.
- How many counties' records. Research across the Collier, Lee and other clerks adds time before fieldwork.
- Deliverables. Testimony, Spanish-language interviews and court-ready exhibits add scope.
How does a Southwest Florida case begin?
- Call or write at (305) 686-7826 or admin@miamiprivateinvestigations.com. A licensee who releases client information without authorization faces discipline (s. 493.6118(1)(e)).
- Records review in the right county, so the field plan targets what is actually in dispute.
- A written scope covering the question, the methods and the travel plan, approved by you.
Related services
Lawful public-place observation across Collier and Lee.
Evidence aimed at the alimony and dissipation questions.
Observations tied to the s. 61.13 factors.
Activity checks for carriers and defense counsel.
Property, vessels and companies behind a judgment or divorce.
Witnesses, statements and testimony-ready files.
Elsewhere in the state? See our Tampa Bay investigators to the north, the Homestead page for the far end of Miami-Dade, or the Florida private investigator hub.
Available across Florida
Every case is run from 4000 Ponce de Leon Blvd, Suite 470, Coral Gables, and our investigators go where the facts are.