A workers’ compensation investigation documents whether a claimant’s activity is consistent with their reported restrictions. It is not an attempt to prove fraud. In Florida it is carried out by a licensed private investigative agency under Chapter 493 of the Florida Statutes, and the resulting report is written to be read alongside the medical restrictions in the claim file.
Insight Investigative Group, LLC is a licensed Florida private investigative agency, agency license A3400127, and surveillance is $1,000 per day, flat. What follows is how this work is actually done.
What is a workers’ compensation investigation?
It is the documentation of a claimant’s observable activity, measured against what they have reported to the carrier and to their treating physician. The question is almost never whether someone left the house. It is whether what they did is consistent with what they said they could do.
A claimant with a twenty pound lifting restriction who is photographed carrying a bag of mulch has a documented inconsistency. A claimant who walks to their mailbox does not. The distinction is the entire job, and an investigator who cannot articulate it is producing footage rather than evidence.
When is surveillance worth the cost?
Surveillance earns its cost where there is a specific, documented inconsistency to test: a claimant reported working elsewhere, activity on social media that contradicts stated restrictions, a treating physician questioning the reported mechanism of injury, or a claim where the reported limitations and the observed lifestyle have already diverged.
It is usually wasted where the file has nothing but a general suspicion. Before an assignment is opened we will tell you honestly when we think a subject’s routine makes a day unlikely to produce anything. That conversation has closed files without an assignment, which is the point of having it.
What does an AOE COE investigation cover?
AOE COE stands for arising out of employment and course of employment. It establishes whether the injury happened at work and in the course of the claimant’s duties. It combines recorded statements from the claimant, witnesses and the employer, documentation of the scene, and a review of prior claim and litigation history.
It is frequently more decisive than surveillance and much less expensive, because a compensability problem ends a claim faster than an activity inconsistency does. On a file with a questionable mechanism of injury it is the first thing to run, not the last.
How long should surveillance run?
Most assignments are one to three days. A single day establishes whether the subject is reachable and what their pattern looks like. Additional days are worth booking when the first produced activity worth developing, and are worth declining when it did not.
Days are better chosen than accumulated. Three correctly selected hours routinely beat twenty spent guessing, which is why establishing the pattern first tends to cost the carrier less overall.
What can an investigator legally document in Florida?
Surveillance is conducted from public places and public vantage points where there is no reasonable expectation of privacy. A licensed investigator may record video in those settings, follow a subject on public roads, and document what is visible from them.
An investigator may not trespass onto private property, may not record private conversations without the consent of all parties under section 934.03 of the Florida Statutes, and may not place a tracking device on a claimant’s vehicle under section 934.425. Investigations conducted otherwise hand claimant counsel the case, and that is a far more expensive outcome than an inconclusive surveillance day. This is general information, not legal advice.
What makes a surveillance report usable?
Timestamped video and stills logged as captured. A written chronological activity log covering the whole assignment, including the periods where nothing happened. Maintained chain of custody on all recorded media. And an investigator who observed it and can speak to what he saw.
A report that documents only the adverse observations is not an investigation, and claimant counsel will make that point before you do. Ours record what was observed, including observations that support the claimant, because a file that only ever produces the findings someone hoped for is being told a story.
What does it cost?
Surveillance is $1,000 per day, flat, including unlimited mileage and travel, video and stills, and a written case report. There is no multi-day discount. Claim investigations that do not involve surveillance are quoted per file.
Written by Joshua Goldberg, Florida private investigator license C3400073, owner of Insight Investigative Group, LLC, agency license A3400127, Bradenton, Florida.
Related: insurance fraud and claims investigation and surveillance services.
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