Is Somebody Watching Me? Surveillance after a Workplace Injury
At Silverman, McDonald & Friedman, we help injured workers obtain the benefits they need when they are unable to work. If you would like to speak to one of our capable workers’ compensation lawyers in Newark, Wilmington or Seaford, please contact us and schedule your consultation today.
If you have suffered a serious workplace injury and you have claimed workers’ compensation benefits to cover you while you miss work, it is quite possible that you are already under surveillance. Your employer’s workers’ compensation insurer has the option to use many methods available to them to prove whether or not an employee is really injured, or if the work task limitations they have claimed to have are actually limiting them from doing those same activities in their daily lives. While it can be costly to send an investigator to hang around outside of an employee’s home address to see if they can catch them on camera performing tasks that they have said that they are unable to do at work, it probably costs them nothing at all to monitor your social media pages for pictures or posts that might indicate you are not hurt.
Examples of how an insurer can use video surveillance against you
Here are some examples of how video surveillance has been used to uncover cases of claimants either exaggerating the extent of their symptoms or disabilities and situations that turned out to be insurance fraud:
- Proof that the claimant is not disabled in the way they claimed to be.
- Proof that the person has exaggerated about the extent of their symptoms.
- Shows that the claimant is not obeying the doctor’s restrictions.
- Discredits the claimant’s credibility.
Insurance companies hire investigators to photograph or videotape injured workers outside of their homes in public places trying to catch them in the act of doing something that they are not supposed to be able to do.
Your Facebook might get you in trouble
Another tactic that insurance companies can use to investigate the activities of people who are out on disability leave from work is to troll their social media feeds. Investigators can look at a person’s status updates, and the pictures and videos that they post online as evidence that can be used against them. Pictures taken with the digital camera on a mobile phone contain metadata that offers clues as to where and when the photo was taken.
When you are on disability leave from work and collecting workers’ compensation, you can assume that someone is keeping an eye on your comings and goings, watching your movements and activities to see if they can catch you doing what you said you were incapable of doing. Your best option is to obey your doctor’s orders, rest and recover so that you can get back to work. If you happen to notice a suspicious person lurking in your neighborhood who seems to be taking too much of an interest in your movements, do not confront them, but neither do you want to give them any fodder to use against you or to accuse you of workers’ compensation fraud.
Our Delaware workers’ compensation attorneys have been helping injured workers for a long time. If you have suffered an injury in the course of your duties at work and have questions about the claims process, Silverman, McDonald & Friedman is here to help. To schedule your free consultation with an experienced workers’ compensation lawyer in Newark, Seaford or Wilmington, please call 302-888-2900, or fill out our contact form.
Attorney Jeffrey S. Friedman joined Silverman, McDonald & Friedman in 2001. He graduated from Widener University School of Law, and is admitted to practice law in Delaware and Pennsylvania, and in several Federal Circuit courts. He areas of concentration include auto accident and workers’ compensation cases. Read more about Attorney Friedman here.