Unfortunately, there is not much a person can do to stop this invasive action by an insurance company. Under current law, and current insurance practices, it generally is permissible for an insurance company to place an injured person under surveillance. This is true in both workers' compensation and personal injury situations.

            There are two goals that make surveillance valuable to the insurance company. The first goal is to document the injured person's level of activity. The insurance company is hopeful that it can catch the injured person doing inappropriate activity for the type of injury they have.

            The second goal of surveillance is getting the injured person to deny activity that has already been photographed. Here is an example: Assume that a person has a serious low back injury. After surveillance the insurance company gets photos showing the person can shovel snow. These photos alone would not hurt the person's case as many people with back injuries can still shovel snow. What hurts the case is when the person later testifies that they can’t shovel snow.

            The best advice injured people can follow is to be truthful about your activity. People fear that if they admit they are able to do physical activity that it will destroy their case. The exact opposite is true. If you deny activity that you are engaged in, it will serve to hurt your credibility, and ultimately cause your claim to lose value.

            In this day and age surveillance is a fact of life, so don't fear it. The key for the injured person is to be truthful in all regards concerning their physical activity. The most important part of any injury situation is your truthfulness. You should do nothing to diminish its value