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4 Ways To Protect Your Personal Injury Case From Surveillance

Nothing is worse than having your life turn upside down by your insurance company after you have been injured. This video explores four way that you can protect yourself from insurance surveillance and avoid the grief while you focus on healing.

Video Transcript:

Do insurance companies really use surveillance hoping to destroy your case?

0:06

They sure do.

0:08

I’m Derek Wilson and I’m a personal injury lawyer in Hamilton, Ontario.

0:11

but when I used to do work for the insurance

0:13

companies we used surveillance in third of cases. While the idea of surveillance

0:18

might make you feel uncomfortable, provided you follow these four steps it

0:22

should have no bearing on your case.

0:24

Step 1: Always tell your lawyer if the condition improves

0:27

The purpose of surveillance is to try and catch you in

0:30

a lie. For this reason surveillance is often

0:33

conducted after the discovery to see if you were 100 percent honest.

0:37

For example, during discovery a defense lawyer may ask you if you’ve been able

0:42

to do yard work since your accident. If you can’t, you will answer no but when the

0:47

trial begins six months later they may introduce a recent video of you cutting

0:51

the grass. When you said “no” six months before it was the truth, but since then

0:56

your condition improved. The question is did you tell your lawyer.

1:00

Step two: Honor your healing

1:03

If you’re healing from an injury and dancing is painful and you

1:07

tell the insurance company that dancing is painful and then you’re seen in a

1:11

photo dancing at a wedding you’ve lost credibility. It doesn’t

1:14

matter that you spent three days in bed recovering – the damage is done. That’s why

1:18

it’s important to honor your healing. If jogging is painful to you – don’t jog.

1:23

If your physiotherapist advises against hiking, don’t hike just to see if you can.

1:27

Be patient and wait for the all-clear from a professional before engaging in

1:32

these kinds of activities and again, always let your lawyer know.

1:37

Step 3: Trust your instincts.

1:39

If you’re in a personal injury case and you get the feeling

1:41

you’re under surveillance you’re probably right. Trust your instincts and

1:45

tell your lawyer. This is especially important because while it’s uncommon,

1:49

some insurance companies can get aggressive with surveillance. If that

1:53

happens, it’s my job to make it stop.

1:55

Step 4: Lock down your social media

1:58

My advice is to get off social media altogether. If you don’t wish to delete your social

2:03

media accounts, take a moment and view all your accounts as a stranger to see

2:07

how much of your data and images are public.

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Next go through your friends and families accounts to see how many public

2:14

pictures of you they’ve posted. Be prepared for an awkward talk with your

2:18

community about deleting posts. Finally if you’re at an event you’ll want to

2:23

ensure that others don’t post anything compromising about you that could give

2:26

the insurance company the wrong idea. When it comes to personal injury law

2:30

honesty is always the best policy. The more honest you are about your situation

2:34

the less surveillance will matter because they’ll be no surprises.

2:39

If you’ve been injured in an accident or denied long-term disability call my office for

2:42

a free consultation – let’s talk.

 

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