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Personal Injury – Surveillance Footage

[vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]Regrettably surveillance footage is a forensic tool utilised by insurers when a claim for personal injury is made. It is generally used for two interrelated purposes. They are to demonstrate that an injured person is not as injured as they assert and to establish that the injured person is being untruthful. Surveillance is used as a mechanism by the insurers to try and tarnish the credibility of an injured person.

It is most likely the case that insurers will undertake surveillance of all persons who make a claim. The fact that surveillance footage is only used by insurers in a very small percentage of claims clearly establishes that the overwhelming majority of injured persons making a claim for compensation are being completely truthful and their claims are entirely legitimate. Despite this the insurers do not refrain from undertaking surveillance footage in the hope that they are able to find something they can be used to try and minimise if not negate the claim by the injured person.

Surveillance should hold no fear for any legitimate claimant. The only time that surveillance footage can be of any concern is when the injured claimant seeks to deny having undertaken an activity which they have in fact performed. For example, the insurer through its representatives, including any medico-legal doctors it may retain, will ask an injured person as to whether they are able to undertake a particular activity, for example mowing the lawn. If the injured person denies such an activity and there is surveillance footage of the injured person performing that task then same will be relied upon by the insurer in support of an argument that the claimant lacks credibility and cast aspersions as to the legitimacy of the claim. If however the injured person concedes that they have undertaken the the mowing of a lawn which accords with the surveillance footage available to the insurer then very little if anything can be made of it. That is, the surveillance footage does not disclose, for example, the fact that the injured person may have suffered significantly as a result of the mowing of the lawn or the fact that the injured person had no alternative but to undertake the mowing of the lawn themselves. Therefore, a concession by an injured person that they have undertaken various activities since the time of the accident should in itself not hold any fears for an injured person.

Honesty has and will always be the best policy.

The undertaking of various activities by an injured person does not in any way diminish the legitimacy or value of an injured person’s claim. At the end of the day the injured person will be compensated commensurate with the injuries which they have sustained. What the injured person can and cannot do by reason of those injuries will be taken into account by a court in determining the extent of the damages to which they are entitled.

 

Brydens Lawyers are the experts in the prosecution of all personal injury claims and for over 40 years have been helping people recover the compensation to which they are entitled. Contact us today if you want to get your life back on track following an injury or accident that was not your fault.

 

For over 40 years now Brydens Lawyers has been operating a ‘No Win – No Fee”, policy which, simply put, provides that if a personal injury or compensation client is unsuccessful in their claim then Brydens Lawyers will not raise a tax invoice for having acted on behalf of the client. That is, if the claim is unsuccessful we do not get paid. More information about how this works can be found on our No Win – No Fee page.[/vc_column_text][ultimate_spacer height=”30″ height_on_tabs=”30″ height_on_tabs_portrait=”30″ height_on_mob_landscape=”15″ height_on_mob=”15″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_wp_custommenu title=”Start a claim” nav_menu=”77″ el_id=”test-id” el_class=”test-class”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

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