Orange County Workers Compensation claims social media

January 5, 2014

Before people began broadcasting their daily activities and professional tribulations, it was quite expensive and difficult for companies to catch insurance fraud in the act.

However, the internet has changed just about every facet of corporate strategy, from effectively targeting markets to investigating prospective employees…and now the latter is to include employees who are possibly not being particularly honest about their work injuries.

Twenty years ago, it was almost exclusively the job of private and internal investigators to check-up on the type of activities that a workers compensation victim was engaged in. If the investigation turned up that someone with a back injury continued attending volleyball practice, then a judge would have strong reason to believe that individual is engaged in fraud.

These days, it doesn’t take trailing someone to find out what they’re doing with their spare time.

All it takes is a few clicks of the keyboard and mouse and you’re able to find out all sorts of information about the activities of any given stranger. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Yelp…it’s incredible how many avenues are available.

Not every workers compensation case prompts a company to launch an investigation, however. It generally isn’t without ‘red flag’ variables present that a company will spend additional resources investigating an employee.

One of these includes a claimant being unavailable for contact during work hours (raising the suspicion they’re working hours at a different job while collecting benefits from another). Another is a claimant who has been absent in during the time leading up to the claim. And an additional, extremely reliable source is the talk amongst co-workers of the claimant, who are often much better informed as to the employees extra-professional behavior than any manager ever could be.

In truth, false workers compensation claims are a terrible abuse of the system which cause burden to all who benefit from the program legitimately. It is the responsibility of both the claimant and the employer to ensure that each case is handled effectively and responsibly.

John Rosenbaum has been working for over three decades as one of Orange County’s most trusted Workers Compensation and Personal Injury attorneys. His success rate exceeds 99%, and through the years he has earned the trust of both clients and industry professionals alike.

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