When you’ve been injured in an accident caused by someone else’s negligence, you might expect their insurance company to treat you fairly. After all, that’s what insurance is for, right?
The reality is very different. Insurance companies are businesses, and their primary goal is to protect their bottom line. That means paying you as little as possible for your injuries. At Inzina Law, we’ve spent years fighting insurance companies on behalf of injured victims, and we want you to understand exactly what you’re up against.
The Insurance Company’s Real Motivation
Let’s be direct: what drives everything for an insurance company is money. Their ultimate goal is to pay as little as possible to you for your injuries. Every tactic they employ is designed to discredit or whittle away at what you’re entitled to receive.
Here’s something many people don’t realize: the defense attorneys and investigators working against you get paid for every minute they spend building a case against you. They bill for every single minute they work to undermine your claim. This creates a powerful motivation for them to find as much potentially damaging information as they can.
Not only does this information potentially save their client money in a settlement or judgment, but they also get to bill for the time spent finding it. It’s a system designed to work against you.
Surveillance: They May Be Watching You
One of the most unsettling tactics insurance companies use is surveillance. We currently have two cases where the defense attorney or insurance company hired private investigators who literally set up cameras outside our clients’ homes.
In one particular case, there were over 200 hours of footage. This shows you the lengths insurance companies will go to in order to find evidence that you’re doing something inconsistent with your claimed injuries.
When Does Surveillance Start?
This is the troubling part: surveillance can begin almost immediately after your accident. It could be day two after your crash when the insurance company calls their investigator and says, “Go follow this person. Let’s see what they’re doing. They reported injuries, so let’s see if they’re really injured.”
This means that from the moment you’re involved in an accident until your case is resolved, you could be on camera at any time.
Strategic Timing of Surveillance
Having worked as a defense attorney earlier in his career, Blase Inzina knows exactly how the other side thinks. Defense lawyers often strategically time their surveillance around holidays and long weekends: July 4th, Memorial Day, Labor Day. They know these are times when people are active, out and about, potentially doing things that could be captured on video.
The investigator would track the injured person and often find them doing things that undermined their case, activities they had claimed they couldn’t do. Then this footage would be used devastatingly at depositions.
How Surveillance Footage Gets Used Against You
The deposition trap works like this: the defense attorney already has video of you doing something. They’ll ask you questions like, “How were you doing around July 4th?” and “Were you doing anything active?”. If you say you were still in pain and couldn’t do much, they’ll then produce the video showing otherwise. This destroys your credibility.
Context Matters, But Pictures Don’t Always Show It
A picture might say a thousand words, but they’re not always the right words. We have one client who lives alone, is very independent, and was once a great outdoorsman before suffering catastrophic injuries. The defense captured video of him dragging an ice chest.
To most people, that footage looks like he’s not that hurt. But what the video doesn’t capture is how he had to manipulate himself to drag that ice chest, the fact that he had nobody else to help him so he had to do it alone, and that the ice chest was empty.
In that case, we brought the same ice chest into court and had our client demonstrate what was actually happening. The surveillance became so ineffective that the defense attorney didn’t even mention it. We turned their own tactic against them.
The No-Win Situation Insurance Companies Create
There’s an old saying that applies perfectly to dealing with insurance companies: “You’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t.”
From the insurance company’s perspective:
- If you’re really hurt, you should be bedridden
- But if you’re bedridden, you must be exaggerating
- And if you’re working, you must not be that hurt
You’re not going to win with the insurance company’s interpretation of your behavior. The key is not to give them any extra ammunition they can use against you down the road.
How to Protect Yourself
While you shouldn’t live in fear or stop living your life, you need to be mindful that your actions could be captured and used against you.
Be consistent. Don’t do things that contradict what you’ve told your doctors or your attorney about your limitations.
Follow your treatment plan. Your medical records are evidence. If your doctor says you shouldn’t lift more than 10 pounds and you’re filmed carrying heavy boxes, that creates problems.
Be honest with your attorney. We need to know exactly what you can and can’t do so we can properly represent you and prepare for what the other side might throw at us.
Level the Playing Field with an Experienced Attorney
At Inzina Law, we know every tactic insurance companies use because we’ve seen them all, and because Blase spent the first part of his career as a defense attorney working for insurance companies. Now he uses that knowledge to fight for injured victims and their families.
If you’ve been injured in Louisiana and you’re dealing with an insurance company, don’t go it alone. Contact us today at 337-243-1237 for a free consultation.