Private Investigators
Insurance carriers sometimes hire licensed private investigators to observe injured workers. Who these investigators are, when carriers use them, what the law permits them to do, and where their footage ends up.
Who the investigator is
A private investigator working a workers' comp claim is not an employee of the insurance carrier (the company paying benefits on the claim). Carriers hire outside investigation firms, and the investigators those firms send are private citizens licensed by the state to do investigative work. They have no police powers, no right to enter your property, and no authority over you or your claim. Their job is to collect information the carrier can use, most often video, and deliver it.
The typical assignment is short: a few days of observation, timed for a purpose. The full picture of how observation works during a claim, and how an honest worker stays safe, is at Surveillance During Your Workers' Comp Claim. This page describes the person doing the work.
When carriers hire them
Carriers do not order investigation on every claim; it costs money, and they spend it where the claim is worth it to them. Investigators appear most often in claims involving serious injury, long-running disability, or an approaching event where evidence matters: a required medical exam, a designated doctor exam, or a contested case hearing. A carrier that has received a report of possible fraud may also investigate, and PLN-14, the notice that the carrier is still investigating a claim, sometimes has this kind of work behind it. An investigator's appearance does not mean the carrier believes you are lying. It means the carrier is spending money to test the claim.
What investigators may do
The law permits more than most workers expect. An investigator may watch and record you in public: on the street, in a parking lot, in your front yard where anyone can see. An investigator may follow your car on public roads, film you loading groceries, and photograph what sits at your curb. Investigators also work online, reviewing anything you have posted publicly; Social Media During Your Claim covers that ground. They may interview neighbors, former coworkers, and other people who know you, and those people are free to talk if they choose.
What investigators may not do
The limits are real, and they matter. An investigator may not enter your home or your fenced property, may not record you where you have a reasonable expectation of privacy, and may not intercept your phone calls or private conversations. An investigator may not pose as a government official, and may not use false pretenses to obtain your medical records. Texas licenses investigators and can discipline those who cross lines. If you believe an investigator has trespassed or misrepresented who they are, write down the date, time, and details, keep any evidence, and tell your attorney; unlawful conduct can affect whether the material is usable and can support a complaint against the investigator's license.
Do not confront the person. A confrontation produces exactly the kind of footage a carrier finds useful, and it changes nothing about the assignment.
Where the footage goes
An investigator's report and video go to the adjuster and, in a disputed claim, to the carrier's attorney. From there the material surfaces at the moments it can do the most work: sent to the doctor performing a required medical exam, included in the packet the carrier sends the designated doctor, or offered as an exhibit at a contested case hearing to challenge credibility. Footage is often edited to minutes taken from days. What a short clip does not show, a worker's own consistent medical records usually answer, which is one more reason the honest, accurately reported claim is the protected one.
Contact Us
