Is Your Employer’S Insurer Spying On You After Your Injury?

If you have recently suffered a workplace injury and have applied for workers’ compensation benefits, your employer’s insurer is likely to have started an investigation into your injury. Most insurance companies hire professional investigators to follow and monitor the activities of people who have filed workers’ compensation claims.

Almost any insurance investigator will talk to your neighbors to find information that can help the company delay or deny your claim. The investigator is even more likely to scour the Internet and stalk your activities on Facebook and other social networking sites for evidence that can be used to deny or delay your claim.

For instance, if you have suffered an injury and have recently posted pictures on Facebook of yourself playing a sport or attending a party, your employer’s insurance company mayuse this as proof that your injuries are not really that serious and that you don’t deserve much compensation.

For this reason, you should strictly follow the medical advice of your doctor. If the doctor recommends bed rest, stay in bed.

Insurance investigators are very good at taking a few images or video clips out of context and presenting an entirely different picture in court. For instance, if you have suffered a leg injury, an insurance investigator can take pictures of you on a morning walk to use as evidence that your injury is not really that serious, after all.

Atlanta workers’compensation lawyers recommend that you be cautious in the kind of messages, photographs, videos or status updates that you post on your Facebook, MySpace or Twitter account. Better still, avoid using these sites until your claim has been resolved.

Michael Parsons is an Atlanta workers’ compensation lawyer, representing injured workers in the metro Atlanta region and helping them recover the workers’ compensation benefits they deserve.