@ikerepc Yes they hire private investigators companies to follow you around same with disability from the govt. my nephew worked for one of these companies. He said they’ll dress up like utility workers and set up outside your house. It’s a real thing insurance companies hire them too.
@frontier705 Exactly. They paid my nephew about 25 per hour. He traveled all over the state investigating people. He said the biggest thing he caught was people shoveling snow and mowing their yards
@leroyberry Which can suck. There was a woman years ago on the same forum I was, suffering from major depression. Her doctor told her to go on a vacation because a different physical location might help her mood, alleviate some of the depression. She was denied disability because her mood was supposedly positive enough to go on vacation.
@fadacopa I’ve heard from family that have applied you’re almost always denied disability at first unless it’s exceptionally obvious like you lost your limbs or something.
She should have tried to retain an attorney perhaps. There’s basically a whole industry of lawyers handling workers comp and disability claims
@ikerepc I worked in auto injury claims for a while, and sometimes SIU mail would get misdelivered to my pool instead. Always enjoyed clicking through the sketchy as all hell photos through their dining room curtains at night while cooking dinner for and eating with their family, the photos from them stalking people in gyms, that one weird set from underneath a nearby car, the several from various bushes, I wish I was joking. They WILL follow you into the weirdest places and they sent us everything. And the writeups about your day can be so so very insulting. Yes, sometimes they tell you how many bags of chips you ate at the park and exactly how little you were lifting. Anything to deny a claim once SIU gets it
@4nature I had an uncle who had a work injury claim. One really funny thing happened. At an appointment (not sure if it was court or arbitration or a state agency meeting) the insurance presented them with a huge AHHA GOTCHA file folder of pictures of him doing all kinds of yard work, reroofing a shed, Playing football in his yard, etc and "you have a new Job and have been working!"
"Uh Thats not my house and my hair is black not red."
The investigators had been following the wrong guy the entire time due to a simple address mistake. The guy they had been following did drive the same make model and color car
@4nature I’m curious how they handle someone who had to do something but it really causes them pain. I was in a bad accident in November and I’m trying to recover but it’s a struggle. My doctor at this point is like “I want you to try and push through” so yes I’ve gone grocery shopping and lifted the bags and then I’m on the couch the rest of the night. The other 90% of the time my husband does the shopping/lifting. My PT told me to go to the gym and walk. Would they see me going to the gym and hold it against me?
@theprincess97 Probably yeah, but the important thing here would be your medical records. We would get those from your doctors, and they’ll need to include that your doc said that and why, etc
@theprincess97 Former PI, here. It really depends on how much you were lifting and how comfortable you seem while shopping. How often you go. Going to the gym, they would have to follow you in and likely get a membership. They would have to have proof on what you were doing there. Going into a gym isn’t enough, they would have to make assumptions and that isn’t proof enough. You could be going for the sauna or tanning bed.
In the end, it really depends on the restrictions, claimed injuries, doctors notes and observations vs what you are performing when you are out in public or in your home with windows unobscured.
@ps8v9 It’s funny I had a different legal case two years ago where someone accused my of hitting their car in a parking lot and I was so mad about being falsely accused I went around and got all sorts of footage of my car to prove the damage was already there and my lawyer was like…if teaching doesn’t work out and you want to come be a PI for me, let me know! I like teaching so I think I’ll stay there for a while.
But thank you for the info. I did talk with my lawyer last week about the fact that I am back to work but I have major accommodations and would that hurt the case and he said no, most of the time they understand that people have to force themselves back to work in some form. Like I take my backpack into school but I leave as much in my desk as possible to make my back pack lighter. And I’ve brought students out to my car to carry heavier items for me. I do atleast feel like I’ve turned a corner of feeling a bit better but I think that’s also cause I’m getting over being sick and I’ve spent the past 4 days sleeping on the couch lol.
@theprincess97 They will also find out what time your trash is taken out and sit somewhere and watch you perform that task every week or every other week.
@4nature The incentivizing of primarily retired cops to follow the claimants around & track all social media. Who gets the repeat outside work? The inside bonuses? Not the ones who don’t produce $ saving results
