Surveillance in a workers’ compensation claim is not a hypothetical risk. It is a routine tactic insurers use to test credibility and limit payouts. I have watched private investigators sit in unmarked sedans outside a client’s house for 10 hours, only to capture three minutes of footage that later became the centerpiece of a hearing. I have also cross-examined investigators who edited out the 20 minutes of limping that followed a five-second movement they hoped would look damning. The reality falls somewhere in between: surveillance can be lawful, often persuasive, and sometimes misleading. The way you behave day to day, and the way your workers compensation lawyer handles the results, can shape the outcome of your claim more than any single doctor’s note.
This guide explains what surveillance looks like in the real world, how investigators work, the legal limits that protect you, and the practical steps to avoid unforced errors. It also covers how a workers comp lawyer uses context, medical science, and timelines to neutralize seemingly bad footage. The goal is not to make you paranoid, but to keep you consistent, careful, and prepared.
Why insurers use surveillance
Comp carriers are driven by exposure and leverage. When an injury is expensive or long-lasting, they want to know if the worker’s presentation matches real life. A few triggers almost always raise the likelihood of surveillance: high-value claims such as back surgeries and CRPS, long periods of total disability, disputes over permanent impairment, or a history that suggests prior injuries. Close to major medical appointments or depositions, I see surveillance activity spike because the insurer wants fresh footage to use in cross-examination. If your work injury attorney tells you the carrier scheduled an independent medical exam next Wednesday, assume a camera may be rolling from Tuesday through Thursday.
This is not a moral judgment about you. It is a predictable cost-control strategy. Expect it, plan for it, and you take most of the sting away.
What surveillance looks like
The old picture of a gumshoe with a telephoto lens still exists, but technology widened the toolbox. Here is what clients actually encounter:
- Physical stakeouts. A licensed investigator follows you from home to appointments, parks down the block, and records as you carry groceries, pump gas, or walk the dog. They typically use consumer-grade cameras with optical zoom and will record in short bursts when you move. Social media sweeps. Claims adjusters and vendors comb public profiles for posts, photos, comments, and tagged content from friends. A harmless throwback photo or a “like” on a hiking page can be twisted into “proof” of activity. Drone or hybrid tactics. Drones are less common due to legal and privacy risks, but I have seen overhead shots of front yards, driveways, and open fields. More often, investigators set up from elevated vantage points such as parking garages or neighboring properties. Business and neighbor inquiries. Some investigators “canvas” by casually asking neighbors if they have seen you doing yard work or driving. They do not need much to create a narrative.
Even so, most surveillance is not a 24/7 operation. Budgets matter. A typical assignment might be 2 to 4 days of monitoring over a two to three week window, often timed to events in the claim.
What is legal, what is not
The law varies by state, but the broad rules are consistent:
- There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in public spaces. If you are outside your home, in your driveway, on public streets, or in a store parking lot, recording is generally permitted. Private spaces matter. Investigators cannot legally trespass into your home, backyard behind a fence, or any area where privacy is expected. Filming through your windows or planting recording devices on your property crosses a line. Wiretapping laws apply to audio. Secretly recording your conversations can be illegal without consent, depending on one-party or two-party consent rules in your jurisdiction. Drones occupy a gray area. If a drone flies over public space and captures what is plainly visible, some states tolerate it. If it invades curtilage or peers into private areas, a judge may exclude it. Social media content posted publicly is fair game. Private content illicitly accessed can be excluded. Creating fake accounts to “friend” you may run afoul of ethical or legal boundaries, and we can challenge that.
A seasoned workers compensation attorney uses these boundaries to move to strike improper footage or to argue for limited weight.
The credibility lens: how footage gets used
At its core, surveillance is a credibility test. Adjusters compare what you said you cannot do with what you appear to do on video. They are not asking whether you look healthy; they are asking whether a judge sees inconsistency. That is why defense counsel plays clips without context and pauses at the worst frame. For example, a client who reported “difficulty lifting” was filmed carrying a medium package from a porch to a car. The carrier screamed fraud. At hearing, we brought the box, weighed it at 9.6 pounds, and showed that the doctor restricted him to no lifting over 10 pounds. The clip still looked bad, but the numbers turned the temperature down.
Think like a judge: consistency beats drama. Your words, your medical records, and your everyday behavior should harmonize. When they do, surveillance loses power. When they don’t, even neutral footage can sprout thorns.
Everyday habits that keep you safe
I never tell clients to change their lives in artificial ways. I do tell them to live within their restrictions every day, not just at medical appointments. Small lapses create big problems because cameras don’t record what happened before or after.
- Follow your doctor’s restrictions in letter and spirit. If the orthopedist says no lifting over 10 pounds, buy a small hand scale and weigh packages. If you have a 15-minute standing limit, sit down before minute 16, even in line at a pharmacy. Move like you do at an exam. If you use a brace, cane, or TENS unit in the clinic, use it outside as prescribed. If your therapist taught you a safe way to bend, do it in the parking lot too. Pace activities. Many injuries allow brief spikes of activity followed by pain. Insurance will highlight the spike and ignore the crash. If you overdo it for a kid’s birthday, document the aftermath in a pain journal, notes to your physical therapist, or a message to your provider’s portal. Keep errands simple and consistent. Ten light trips beat one heavy trip. Have someone load heavy items. Use delivery for bulky purchases. A cart at the store helps even if you only need a few items. Be honest with yourself about “good days.” Good days happen. They don’t erase disability. If you push yourself, stay within the plan and record the flare you expect later.
Simple discipline wins cases. Most damaging footage begins with someone saying, “I’ll just muscle through this one time.”
Social media without landmines
I have seen more claims damaged by social media than by any private investigator. Two rules matter most. First, avoid posting about your injury, your case, or your medical condition while the claim is active. Second, do not publish images or comments that can be read as bragging about physical activity, even if the post is old, staged, or taken before the injury. If friends tag you, ask them to stop during the case. Privacy settings help, but they are not a guarantee. Assume anything public could be screenshot and saved.
If you notice someone watching you
Investigators are usually discreet, but not invisible. If you spot a suspicious car idling on your street for hours or the same vehicle following you from store to store, call your local non-emergency police line. Give a plate number and location. Do not confront the person. Then notify your workers comp lawyer so we can preserve a record. If the investigator steps onto your property or peers in windows, tell your lawyer immediately. That fact can change how we handle discovery and admissibility.
The day of surveillance: add context in real time
I ask clients to keep a simple log during critical periods: dates, approximate times, activities, and the pain or symptoms that follow. A few lines are enough. For example, “9:30 a.m. PT evaluation, walked 60 yards from parking garage, back spasms after. 1 p.m. groceries, used scooter cart, needed ice after.” When a clip later shows you walking briskly for a short stretch, we can point to the same day notes and the therapist’s chart reflecting increased pain. Judges listen when third-party medical records and your contemporaneous notes match.
Receipts and mundane artifacts matter more than you think. Pharmacy timestamps, parking stubs, mileage logs for therapy, even that grocery receipt showing two light bags, not a 40-pound dog food bag, help build a truthful picture.
What to do if an investigator approaches you
You do not owe an interview. Politely decline to speak. Anything you say can become a narrative hook, even if recorded only in their notes. If you have questions, refer them to your work injury attorney. Do not threaten or escalate. An even, brief response shuts down the opportunity for misinterpretation.
How a workers comp attorney disarms surveillance
When an insurer plans to use footage, they must disclose it. Good defense counsel waits until depositions or hearings to maximize surprise. I prepare clients for that moment so the surprise lands flat. Here is how we approach it:
- Chain of custody and authenticity. We ask for the full, unedited footage, capture logs, time stamps, and investigator notes. If we see gaps, cuts, or missing days, we argue selective editing. Some judges will require full production or limit reliance. Medical correlation. We line up each clip with the medical timeline. If a video shows you lifting a bag two days after a steroid injection, the pain relief window explains the momentary improvement, especially when the doctor writes about it. Biomechanics and load. Video is terrible at weight. A small box might be pillows; a big bag might be paper towels. We bring props when appropriate, measure handheld items, and ask for the object’s actual weight if the store can verify it. Activity versus capacity. A 15-second movement does not prove sustained capacity for work. I cross-examine investigators on what they observed before and after the clip. Were you resting, limping, or stretching? Did they follow you home and see you lie down for an hour? Usually not, and that matters for work capacity evaluations. Alternative explanations. Some conditions wax and wane. Lumbar disc injuries, radiculopathy, and shoulder impingement syndromes have variable presentations. We use peer-reviewed descriptions from treating doctors, not internet printouts, to explain fluctuations. Judges are used to these explanations when the medical records support them.
This is not smoke and mirrors. It is the truth: function is complicated. A workers compensation lawyer’s job is to make that truth legible against the raw pull of video.
Avoiding the biggest mistakes
I wish I could paste these on every kitchen door for the months a claim is active. They are the errors that cause the most preventable damage.
- Overstating symptoms. Tell your doctors how you feel on average and give examples. “I can’t lift anything” is rarely accurate and invites easy contradiction. “I can lift a gallon of milk if I brace my elbow, but not without pain, and never more than that” is honest and defensible. Doing favors. Your neighbor asks you to help move a couch for just a second. Decline. Favors breed claims problems. Yard work and seasonal chores. A camera loves snow shovels, leaf blowers, and ladders. Hire help or get a letter from a doctor recommending avoidance. Even five minutes of shoveling looks like an hour on video. Side gigs. Paid or unpaid, side work during total disability is dangerous. If you feel able to work within restrictions, talk to your lawyer first about partial disability and legal reporting. Do not freelance your way into a termination of benefits. Playing to the camera. Once you suspect surveillance, do not ham it up or exaggerate. Judges can smell theatrics.
The role of your medical team
Doctors are not litigators, but a good report wins cases. Help your physicians help you. Bring a one-page summary to important appointments, including restrictions that matter to your job tasks, pain fluctuations, and what activities cause symptoms. Ask the provider to note typical good and bad days, expected flare-ups, and how long those flares last. When surveillance arises, that language anchors your lived experience in the chart.
Physical therapists and occupational therapists are vital. Their objective measures, like range of motion, grip strength, lift testing with weights, and timed walks, counter Work Injury Lawyer the vagueness of video. If you know an IME is coming, ask your therapist to schedule standardized tests the same week. Numbers persuade.
When surveillance actually helps
It sounds counterintuitive, but I have used surveillance to bolster a claim. A client with CRPS walked to the mailbox while guarding his right arm, then stood still for 30 seconds, foot trembling, before he sat down on the porch step. The carrier thought the walk exposed capability. The tremor, guarding, and sit-down supported the diagnosis. We slowed the clip, had the treating physician narrate the hallmark signs, and the judge commented that the video matched the chart better than any MRI could. Honest living within restrictions creates evidence that supports you, even when the carrier paid for it.
State-specific wrinkles to respect
States differ on what surveillance can do to benefits:
- Some states allow termination of temporary total disability based on video suggesting light-duty capacity, even without a job offer. In those jurisdictions, we push for functional capacity evaluations and vocational input to counter a knee-jerk cutoff. Other states require a change in medical status from a physician before benefits end. There, surveillance tends to influence IMEs more than immediate benefit decisions. Penalties for fraud run from civil overpayment claims to criminal referrals. The bar is high, but not unreachable. Honest, consistent behavior makes fraud allegations vanish before they start.
A local workplace injury lawyer knows how your board or commission weighs surveillance. If you moved or if your employer is multi-state, do not assume the rules travel with you.
What a fair day looks like during a pending claim
Imagine a mid-back injury with a 15-pound lifting limit and standing limited to 20 minutes. A fair day might include driving to physical therapy with a lumbar roll, asking for help with the heaviest door, doing your exercises, and shopping for light items on the way home. You choose a cart, let the clerk load the trunk, and when you get home, you bring items in one bag at a time with rest between trips. Later you log 6 out of 10 pain, note that you iced for 20 minutes, and message your therapist that the new exercise increased soreness. If a camera caught that day, from the parking lot to the driveway, it would show short, careful steps, pauses, hand support while rising from the car, and deliberate use of the cart. That is what consistent looks like.
Working with your lawyer before depositions and hearings
Preparation smooths anxiety. Your workers comp attorney will likely rehearse with you by showing sample scenarios and asking how you would explain them. We focus on concrete, sensory memories: what you felt, what you did, what happened after. Avoid broad claims like “never” and “always.” If surveillance exists, we insist on watching the full video together. We note clothing, weather, distances, and time gaps. That specificity inoculates against the drama of first viewing at the hearing.
If no video has surfaced, we still plan for questions. Defense counsel sometimes asks hypotheticals based on surveillance that may appear later. Your job is to tell the truth plainly and resist the urge to argue.
What to expect from the other side
A disciplined defense treats surveillance as one piece of a larger strategy. They will use it to push an IME doctor toward release to light duty, to pressure a settlement, or to justify claim denials. Sometimes they overplay their hand. A few minutes of activity do not prove you can work eight hours a day, five days a week. When they push too far, we pull the conversation back to functional capacity, vocational placement, and medical restrictions documented over months. Judges appreciate proportionality.
When settlement timing intersects with surveillance
If a carrier spends money on surveillance, settlement talks often follow. They hope the footage gives them leverage. The real question is whether the video shifts your risk profile at hearing. If the clip is benign or explainable, your leverage may be unchanged. If it is ugly and difficult to contextualize, it may be time to discuss numbers you previously would have rejected. That is not capitulation. It is risk management. A practical workers compensation attorney gives you a candid read and options, not pressure.
Two short checklists you can actually use
Daily conduct that protects your claim:
- Live within your medical restrictions every day, not just at appointments. Use assistive devices consistently in public and private. Break tasks into lighter, shorter segments with rest in between. Keep brief notes about pain levels and flares after activities. Avoid social posts about your activities, injury, or the claim.
What to do if surveillance surfaces:
- Ask your lawyer for the full, unedited footage with logs and timestamps. Line up the video with medical records and therapy notes from the same period. Identify weights, distances, and durations to correct assumptions. Consider a supplemental doctor letter explaining variability and flares. Decide on settlement posture only after a sober risk review.
Final thoughts from the trenches
Surveillance feels intrusive because it is, but most of its power comes from surprise and from small inconsistencies that a camera can magnify. The fix is not to hide, but to be relentlessly consistent and honest. If you follow your doctor’s orders in mundane moments, document your recovery, and keep your workers compensation lawyer in the loop, surveillance becomes background noise. When it does appear, we treat it like any other piece of evidence: authentic or not, complete or cherry-picked, relevant or misleading. Cases are won on credibility across months, not on a few minutes of video. Live like the judge is watching, and you will have nothing to fear if a stranger is.