If you sustain a work-related injury and file a workers’ compensation claim, assume that you will be followed. Now, you many never actually have any surveillance put on you, but it’s better to be safe than to have videos surface that could da
mage your claim.
What Is the Purpose of the Private Investigator?
A workers’ compensation investigator is there to help insurance companies determine when an injured employee is committing fraud. They are essentially hired to protect the interests of the insurance company and are looking for discrepancies in your behavior when you aren’t at work. Specifically, they are trying to catch you doing something that would be incongruent with your reported injury.
How Exactly Will They Be Monitoring Me?
Private investigators use a varietyof tools and techniques to find out if you are being honest about your claim. Some of these include:
- Interviewing you endlessly, asking the same questions in different ways— trying to establish every detail of the claim.
- Following you during your time off to see if you are really injured the way you claim to be.
- Performing background checks looking for a genuine injury. They will check to make sure you have no pattern of filing claims as well as no history of fraudulent claims.
- They will put together massive amounts of evidence if they find your claim to be fraudulent, which is then used to determine how much you truly deserve to receive in workers compensation.
Private Investigation in Georgia
After you file a workers’ compensation claim in the state of Georgia you can essentially say goodbye to any privacy. Georgia insurance companies are private investigator prone and always trying to come up with ways not to pay the claim. If you tell the truth at your deposition then theoretically, you should be okay, because your actions will reflect such. Remember that private investigators are trained to be stealth and will go so far as to switch their “costumes” (i.e. sunglasses, baseball cap, etc) throughout the day.
As an injured employee, it’s always good to be on the lookout for private investigators but overall, if you are being completely honest about the injury, then there shouldn’t be a problem. Just protect yourself and make sure you are following the doctor’s precise orders. Also, it might be a good time to lay off social media and not post every second of your day. Many things could be taken out of context or misunderstood. This is also a great time to consult with a workers’ comp lawyer and make sure you are doing everything you should so that nothing will undermine your claim.