On the low end of the learning curve:
In the early days of my SIU career, I made some laughable
errors. I made a fool of myself more
than once, but I learned some valuable lessons.
“The Wrong man”
Robert Munoz was a construction worker who had an injury
claim from a back injury. He was out on
Temporary Disability. The policyholder
was skeptical of Robert’s injury and insisted we investigate, so I hired a
private investigator.
The PI (Bill Johnson) staked out Robert’s apartment early in
the morning. Bill saw Robert leaving
home at 6:00am, wearing a uniform shirt.
Bill followed Robert to a local supermarket. Luckily, Robert was working in the
supermarket parking lot. Bill filmed Robert pushing long trains of shopping
carts for a 6 hour shift.
Bill staked out the supermarket for 2 more days and filmed
Robert working in the parking lot both days.
I was very excited when I saw the video. Robert was doing physically challenging work
that sharply contradicted what he was telling his doctor. I held on to the video for a couple of weeks
and waited for the next medical report from Robert’s primary treating doctor.
When I saw the next medical report, I knew I had stuck
gold. Robert saw his doctor the week
after Bill had filmed him working at the supermarket. The doctor’s report stated Robert said he had
a constant pain level of 7 out of 10 and he was unable to lift anything over 15
pounds.
I mailed a copy of Bill’s video (on VHS) to Robert’s
treating physician and asked him to watch it and comment on whether Robert should still be on Total
Temporary Disability status. I sent a
copy of the video and my letter to the doctor to Robert’s attorney, as well. I thought this was the “magic bullet” that
would shut down Robert’s claim.
About one week later, I received a phone call from Robert’s
attorney. I was sure he was ready to beg
for whatever small settlement he could get.
However, Robert’s attorney was chuckling as he said, ”This is a great
video but there’s is a little problem.
The guy in the video looks similar to my client, except he is well over
200lbs. Robert is 140 lbs. soaking wet.”
I hurriedly looked at the medical report and confirmed what
the attorney told me. I had a sinking
feeling in my stomach as I realized I had paid a PI to film the wrong guy for
nearly 20 hours. And I had sent the
video of the wrong guy to the doctor and attorney!
The attorney told me the guy in the video was Robert’s
cousin who lived with him. My PI had
seen a man emerge from their apartment and had assumed it was the injured
worker.
I apologized to the attorney and Robert (who was on the
conference call). My next call was to
Bill, the PI. Bill’s comment was, “Well,
you gave me an address and a general description—5 foot 6 inch Latino male, 27
years old. I thought I had the right guy”.
I closed my investigation after that spectacular
failure. Robert continued medical
treatment on Temporary Disability and eventually settled his claim with a
Compromise and Release. The policyholder
was not happy with me. However, I
learned a valuable lesson—When you do surveillance of an injured worker, make
sure you give the investigator a very detailed description of who they are
watching. Ask the employer if they have
a photo of the injured worker, too.
Also, before you spend money and time filming a person, have the PI show
the employer a photo of the person being watched and verify whether or not we
are watching the right person.
Also, I convinced Bill the PI to do the next job for 50%
off.
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