When
a person is involved in a personal injury claim, he or she expects the
insurance company to act in good faith and pay compensation for the
damages incurred. However, this is hardly ever the case.
In fact, as every auto accidents attorney Los Angeles, California
is well aware, the insurance company will try every trick in the book
to deny the benefits or devalue the claim as much as possible. And the
most common tactic is covert surveillance!
Following are just some of the ways in which an insurance company uses private investigators to keep tabs on the plaintiffs:
Physical shadowing –
Your day-to-day activities will be discreetly recorded while you are at
work or in other public settings with the intent to catch you doing
things that are inconsistent with your disability claim. For instance,
the investigator will click or shoot you while you are bending to pick a
child or other item which directly contradicts your claim of reduced
functional capacity following a back injury. They may even play around
with the footage like omitting your agonized reaction caused by the
strain of bending down.
Virtual shadowing –
In recent years, the surveillance has also moved online and your social
media presence will be analyzed with a fine tooth comb. The insurance
company will carefully scrutinize your FaceBook posts, Twitter tweets,
bog posts and other online activities. An innocent picture or comment
can also be deliberately misconstrued to show that you are either
fabricating or exaggerating your claim of being injured.
It
is clear that the basic premise of insurance surveillance is to cast
doubts on the legitimacy of your claims and bring your credibility into
question. This will help them deny the claim altogether. And deliberate
misrepresentations are part of the game.
Indeed,
just because your claim is genuine, you cannot assume that you will be
spared the ignominy of surveillance. Therefore, the best recourse is to
consult a proficient auto accidents attorney Los Angeles, California at the outset itself.
Personal
injury attorneys are well-versed with the underhand tactics used by
insurance companies. They will warn you that you may be shadowed and
also about the kind of activities you should avoid – both online and
offline. You will be advised to carry on as if nothing happened even
when you realize you are being watched.
In
addition, the safest option is to be honest and not try to distort your
injuries or inflate your disability in an attempt to win extra
compensation. This way you will not have to worry about being spied upon
as you will only be doing what you are genuinely capable of.
Even
if the insurance company tries to misrepresent the recordings, the
attorney will know how to challenge the attempts to discredit your claim
and also ensure that you get the full and rightful compensation!
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