Understanding Surveillance After a Personal Injury Claim

It’s understandable if your initial reaction is to be concerned or even afraid when you learn the at-fault party’s insurance company hired a private investigator to follow you after an accident. In fact, people often assume such surveillance is unethical and illegal.

Using a private investigator is not illegal if the investigator follows certain guidelines (which we’ll specify in a bit). Insurance companies want to protect their bottom line, and monitoring for fraudulent claims is a normal part of what they do. Surveillance also weeds some fraudulent cases out of the already overwhelmed court system.   

This kind of investigation is more in-depth than simply using video footage (such as from a store or traffic camera) to see what actually happened during an accident. The private investigator’s job is to dig deeper into an injured person’s background and activities, and to do so on an ongoing basis.

Generally, this expensive level of investigation is used in cases where the injury claims are significant and the defense and/or insurance company have reason to suspect exaggeration or outright fraud.    

Appropriate surveillance by a private investigator doesn’t involve anything you can’t do yourself, but rather focuses on learning as much about you as possible from publicly available information.

For example, an insurance company’s investigator might:

• Look at your social media profiles
• Follow you at a distance in public areas
• Examine your public records
• Photograph you in public areas
• Monitor your professional profiles or business activities
• Talk to your neighbors, customers, co-workers, or other people you know
• Search for a criminal record

Again, while this can be uncomfortable, it’s completely legal and something insurance companies and insurance agents who work with insurance companies do all the time. In recent years, smart phones and social media have made it far easier to take pictures, discover who you know, and monitor what you’re up to, and the insurance companies take full advantage of that easy access.    

What Are Private Investigators Looking For?

The private investigator’s main job is to see if your actions support what you say in your personal injury claim. They look very closely for any sign that you’re exaggerating or even making up how your injury affects your life to damage your credibility.   

For example, say your workers’ compensation claim is for a neck and back injury that’s made it very difficult to lift boxes at your job or children in your home. A private investigator might watch Facebook for pictures of you holding your toddler, or visit the store where you work, to see if you’re lifting things normally.

An honest investigator might not find a single thing to contradict your claim. Of course, this is ideal for you, and it can backfire on the at-fault party’s defense team. If the surveillance ends up supporting your claim yet is still somehow used in the case, it can weaken the defense and help your case.  

What Is Off-Limits to Private Investigators?

As mentioned, private investigators must follow the law. This is not a criminal investigation, and your privacy must be respected.

Let us put your mind at ease: A private investigator isn’t going to come into your home or invade your private life. The things they may not do include:

• Wiretapping your phone
• Taking pictures/video through private property windows
• Trespassing
• Impersonating police
• Obtaining protected information without consent
• Pretending to be someone they are not to get close to you

Professional investigators do not try to make you feel scared or nervous. In fact, if they’re doing their job well, you might not even know they’re there because they’ll stay at a distance and do not interfere with your life.   

How Do I Know I’m Being Watched by a Private Investigator?

Like we said, private investigators prefer to go undetected, and so they hide in plain sight and blend in with the crowd. However, a few subtleties might alert you to their surveillance.

Remember: You’re more likely to be investigated if your injuries are serious or rare, your claim is significant, and/or you’re asking for a lot of money. Insurance companies won’t put the cost and time into a personal investigator over a sprained wrist and a few thousand dollars.   

Here are a few things to look for if you think you’re being followed by a private investigator:

• A car that seems to suddenly appear in your neighborhood, at the grocery store, near the gas station, etc.
• Increased interest and/or questions from neighbors, co-workers, etc.
• Repeatedly seeing the same stranger, who never interacts with you, in places you frequent

We can’t stress enough that, if it is in fact a private investigator, this is not something to fuel paranoia or fear. Simply ignore their presence and live life as you normally do.