Surveillance After a Workers’ Compensation Claim
After you file a claim for Workers’ Compensation benefits, your employer may have suspicions about whether or not your claims are legitimate; perhaps your supervisor believes that you are exaggerating the extent of your injury in order to collect additional benefits, or the company may just not want to pay your Workers’ Compensation claim. Whatever the reason, many employers and insurance carriers resort to hiring private investigators to observe victims of workplace accidents, attempting to catch them in a lie and deny their claims. Read on to learn about what these investigators are looking for, and the ways they may be watching you.
Investigators will look for inconsistencies: The more that an insurer or employer can discredit your testimony, the harder it will be for you to recover the benefits you deserve. One way to discredit you is by filming you moving in a way that is not consistent with your prior testimony about your injuries. Perhaps an investigator will film you limping as you walk into a doctor’s appointment, but walking without a limp when walking into your house. You may be moving differently for innocent reasons, such as having taken pain killers one day but not the next, but this sort of footage can be powerful in making you appear dishonest.
Social media posts can be used against you: You might not feel the need to be completely honest or literal when posting on social media, but that doesn’t mean that an investigator won’t use the things you say as evidence of your condition. Avoid talking about any physical activities or sports in a way that could make you appear to have been lying about or exaggerating your injury claims.
Not following doctors’ orders regularly could hurt your claim: Your employer is familiar with the details of your injury, and with the limitations that doctors have placed on your movement. As a result, investigators are looking for ways you may be acting that run contrary to those orders. If an investigator sees you repeatedly carrying your five-year-old child to and from the car when you’ve been instructed not to carry more than 20 lbs., for example, this could be used as a basis to deny your claim.
You’re especially likely to be watched going to and from doctors’ appointments: Your employer may be aware of when you have scheduled doctors’ appointments related to your workplace injury claims and may notify investigators to camp out near your home on those days to watch you.
If you’ve been hurt on the job in South Carolina, contact the compassionate, determined, and experienced Spartanburg Workers’ Compensation lawyer Chad Pye for a consultation on your claim, at 864-583-5658.
