Hire Cannon Disability Law To Represent You In Your Disability Case
The SSA conducts investigations into claimants who are seeking disability benefits. Can you see that you need a legal team with experience to represent you before the SSA? Not only do you need an attorney in court, you need a legal team to help you apply for benefits and appeal SSA denials. Make sure your paperwork is correct. Dont give the SSA a reason to investigate you. You also need an advocate to explain to a judge why SSAs investigators should not be judging your disability. Especially when they are not doctors.
Cannon Disability Law has lawyers and representatives in many states. Find out more about Utah disability information here. Likewise, find out more about Nevada Disability information here. Cannon Disability Law has been representing clients with disabilities for many years. During that time, we have won over $100 million in ongoing and back-due disability benefits for our clients. We work with you to build the evidence in your case. Also, we will help you from the day you apply for benefits through your hearing before a disability judge. Contact us today for a free consultation.
I just got a MASSIVE deposit into my account and I cannot tell you how thankful I am to you and your firm. I cannot express my appreciation for you guys. THANK YOU!
I was worried I wouldn’t find a law firm that could help me with my case. But a friend referred me to Cannon Disability and they won my disability benefits for me.
New York Long Term Disability Insurance Lawyer Free Consultation
The social security administration can do this a number of ways, but one of the main ways they do this is through video surveillance. Accordingly, it is important to understand just what social security disability surveillance is, disability surveillance tactics, how it can potentially affect you, what to do if your benefits are being threatened due to such surveillance video, and the importance of a long term disability insurance lawyer.
What Should You Not Tell A Disability Doctor
The last thing you want to do during a Disability medical exam is exaggerate your condition. Dont say you have pain everywhere or try and make your condition look worse than it really is. The doctor and staff will observe you arriving at the office, entering the exam room, and getting on and off the table.
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Politicians Use Disability Fraud For Their Own Purposes
Recently, for example, there was a highly publicized case in West Virginia where a lawyer, a disability judge and at least two doctors have been accused of conspiring to cheat the disability system and produce favorable decisions in cases with manufactured evidence.
There have also been cases where judges have been called out for approving an unusually high number of claims .
Statistically, outright fraud happens rarely but given the size of the disability program, fraud does cost taxpayers millions of dollars per year. Congress has therefore been pressuring Social Security to increase its review of approved claims and to increase prosecution of claimants who commit outright fraud.
In my experience, Social Security relies on the claim adjudication process to weed out undeserving claims. I have not seen any instances in the pre-approval process where disability applicants were surveilled or followed.
I do advise my disability clients to delete or set to private any social media accounts. Is it possible that a judge might type your name into Google or Facebook to see what comes up? Yes, it is possible. I generally plug my clientss names into Google and Facebook and I have seen dozens of photos that could raise questions about whether a disability claimant is telling the truth. Usually, these photos were taken years earlier and would have no evidentiary value but why take the chance?
What Kind Of Surveillance Is Possible From The Ssa
In terms of the kind of surveillance that can happen from the SSA, there are several forms.
- Direct Observation
- Video Surveillance
- Social Media Monitoring
The SSA could assign someone to follow and keep direct tabs on you during your regular daily activities. Again, as long as you arent doing activities that would raise a red flag on if you were actually able to continue working, you have nothing to worry about. The SSA could also conduct video surveillance to try to catch a similar activity on tape. Social media monitoring is also possible, so what you post publicly has to be considered.
Overall, like has been stated, as long as you are rightly receiving social security disability benefits, there is truly nothing to worry about in terms of losing those benefits. If you have questions or need a lawyer involved, contact Tabak Law today.
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How To Protect Yourself During Ltd Surveillance
There are many ways to protect yourself during your LTD claim. Talking to an LTD lawyer can give you a better understanding of the steps specific to you that you need to take to make sure youre protected. Our experienced disability lawyers have dealt with a magnitude of LTD claims. They have a great idea of how you could be surveilled during your specific case and how to minimize the impact from both a strategic and psychological perspective.
Surveillance Tactics In Long
If you have filed for long-term disability insurance due to a disabling medical condition, you may discover that approval of your claim rests on more than a submittal of documents. Often, insurance companies will enact surveillance tactics to ensure the validity of your claim. Yes, that means, in short, that insurance companies may spy on you.
There are restrictions to this surveillance they cannot watch you in the privacy of your home but outside of your home, as well as online, insurance companies may be watching. They will use surveillance to assess your claim before and after it is approved with the intention of catching you at an activity that will disprove your disability, thus allowing them to deny or cut of your benefit payments.
Unfortunately, surveillance can entail more than being watched by an investigator. It may consist of video and audio recordings, house visits, and online monitoring. With so many eyes out, your insurance company may spot something they determine as grounds to deny your claim or terminate your benefits. It is important to realize, however, that denials based on surveillance can be wrongful on your insurance companys part, often because they prioritize their own business needs.
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If Surveillance Has Led To The Termination Of Your Disability Insurance Benefits Fight Back
If your disability claim was wrongfully denied for surveillance or social media reasons, the compassionate, top-rated disability insurance lawyers and ERISA attorneys at DarrasLaw may help:
- You were surveilled by a private investigator who took video of you that your insurer alleges invalidates your disability claims
- A false assertion that your disabling condition was pre-existing and does not qualify for disability benefits under your policy
- An insurers failure to follow the terms of its own plan when deciding your eligibility for disability benefits, changing the interpretation of an own occupation policy to an any occupation policy, or using a vocational expert to say youre capable of working when you actually cannot
- Endless requests for duplicative claim documentation, only to be told that the documentation supplied is incomplete, unsatisfactory, or never received
- A refusal to supplement Social Security Disability Insurance as required when the disability benefits promised by the policy exceed those received from SSDI
- An improperly credentialed, insurer-hired doctor reviews your file and determines that you are not disabled, or talks to your treating doctor and determines that you are ready to return to work before that is actually possible
Looking Over Your Shoulder
The impact was obvious on claimants who were, as we said in the industry, “surveillance aware”.
They may have caught an investigator at it, had a lawyer warn them or had already been shown surveillance tapes by claims officers challenging their assertions. With long-term claims this is common.
The result is obvious paranoia and wild attempts to foil investigators even when they aren’t sure they’re there. I’ve watched people make a habit of driving 30 kilometres an hour under the speed limit, circling roundabouts four times to see who follows and pulling over after every corner to get a good look at the next car to appear.
Imagine living your life like that, always looking over your shoulder. Now imagine you already suffer from anxiety, depression or schizophrenia and you’re under constant pressure from your insurer to “get better”.
If an investigator records these counter-surveillance tactics, it can be used to justify further surveillance, even when there’s no other evidence. This can result in a vicious cycle of increased surveillance and paranoia.
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Social Media And Disability
One aspect of social media has largely been overlooked: how it can affect people applying for Social Security disability benefits.
The Social Security Administration does not currently regularly monitor social media accounts because they know pictures and comments can so easily be taken out of context, altered, and are all together unreliable.
They know social media posts are often an inaccurate reflection of a users typical lifestyle.
People post things to social media that they want the world to see. Most people prefer to present a brave, happy face instead of the harsh and, oftentimes painful, reality of living with a disability day after day.
Technology has also blurred the lines of what is real on the Internet. Computer programs like Photoshop and apps like Instagram make it easy to alter photos making it difficult to know what is real.
Contact The Attorneys At Chisholm Chisholm & Kilpatrick Ltd For A Free Consultation
The long-term disability attorneys at CCK are prepared to help you with your long-term disability case. With our knowledge of long-term disability practices and ERISA laws, we are ready to fight for your claim against any insurance company.
If you have a disabling condition and need of assistance with your disability claim, you can speak with a member of our team at 800-544-9144 or contact us online for a free consultation.
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Why Would An Insurance Company Use Surveillance On Me
Insurance companies often have two main reasons for using surveillance on claimants: insurance fraud and the prioritization over their own business needs. Unfortunately, insurance fraud can cost companies billions of dollars each year and result in higher premium prices for policyholders. Insurance companies will use surveillance as a tactic to root out fraudulent claims.
However, an insurance company may then use fraud as a front to put harsher measures on real claims, which can result in wrongful denials or terminations of benefits. Insurance companies often will put their own business and profits ahead of the needs of their insured customers. While surveillance tactics root out fraudsters, they also pose a danger to those in genuine need of disability benefits.
How Disability Insurance Companies Use Surveillance To Deny Disability Claims
If you recently filed an individual or long-term disability insurance claim, your insurance company may surveil you. While the thought of being recorded and photographed is surely unsettling, it is an unfortunateyet mostly legalreality of disability-insurance claims investigations.
Here are several factors to consider about the legality and practical use of surveillance to discredit disability claims.
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Frequency Of Social Security Case Reviews
When your application for Social Security disability benefits is approved, the disability determination representative who handled your claim will set the dates for your continuing disability reviews . The Certificate of Award you received when your claim was approved should indicate when you can expect your first review. Generally speaking, CDRs are set at every three years or every seven years.
Do You Want To File A Disability Claim
If you are applying for benefits or have been denied benefits, we can help. Our practice is social security disability law and nothing else. We have offices throughout Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Illinois. We offer free consultations and we do not get paid unless you win your case. Contact us online today for more information. We can also be reached at .
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You May Be Under Ssa Investigation At Your Consultative Examination
Typically, when the SSA decides to start an investigation, they will have an investigator follow you at your Consultative Examination. The people who follow you are not police officers, they are investigators.
The reason the SSA may follow you at your Consultative Exam is that they know you will be attending. Therefore, it is a good time to watch what you do. Consultative Exams are set by the SSA and they pay the doctors who do the exams. Most people attend a Psychological Evaluation or a Physical Evaluation with a physician. The SSA sets the time and place for these examinations. It is best to go. They will deny your disability claim if you do not attend.
SSA sends investigators to the offices of the Consultative Examiner. The investigator can park outside the doctors office in a car. Sometimes, the investigator will be in the doctors waiting room, pretending to wait for an exam like you. The investigator may start a conversation with you. If you talk on your phone, they will listen. They will also watch how you get out of the car and how you walk. Likewise, they will check to see if you need a cane or other assistive device, like a walker. The investigator is comparing your behavior to the answers you wrote on the SSAs forms about your daily activities.
Why Is It Legal For Insurance Companies To Conduct Long Term Disability Spying
Insurance companies have a financial responsibility to their shareholders to ensure they are only paying for legitimate LTD insurance claims. If they were not to investigate any of the claims made, insurance companies would pay out billions of dollars each year for fraudulent claims. This would significantly increase insurance premiums by hundreds or even thousands of dollars yearly, possibly making LTD insurance unaffordable for millions of people.
Although insurance companies have the right to evaluate the validity of your claim, this right is commonly abused. They often use the pretense of fighting fraud to delay, undervalue, and wrongfully deny valid claims.
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‘there’s Something Dodgy About Him’
There are thousands of private investigators surveilling insurance claimants right now. The exact number of licensed investigators is unknown most states don’t maintain registers but insurance work is their bread and butter.
It kept me employed full-time for a year no cheating spouses, no thieves in the night, just people with a claim that was costing their insurance company money.
In each case, I’d ask the claims officer what prompted the decision to track this claimant. Often the reasons were quite subjective.
“Her tone of voice last time we spoke was really suss,” one manager told me.
“I just get the sense there’s something dodgy about him,” said another.
Sometimes the only reason given was that the claim was taking a long time and was expensive. Surveillance was regularly ordered without evidence of a problem.
What Is A Va Reexamination
A reexamination can be a medical examination or, if the VA feels it is necessary to evaluate the severity of your disability, a period of hospital observation. The VA is legally entitled to require an exam or hospitalization, so it is critical that you comply with a reexamination request in order to preserve your benefits.
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Significant Terms To Remember
Precise definitions of the various forms of surveillance will vary. General tactics, however, are used to surveil claimants with individual and group long-term disability claims, including:
- Fixed surveillance: This is more commonly known as a stakeout. Here, the investigator watches the subject of interest from a distance and typically from a distinct location or locations. Sometimes, fixed surveillance can involve more than one investigator, and it may take place during a short or long period of time. Insurance companies may use this tactic to observe a claimants normal daily routines, and generally from 5 a.m. till at least 7 p.m.
- Stationary technical surveillance: This form of surveillance is similar to fixed surveillance. The primary difference is that stationary technical surveillance reduces the need for a human investigator. Typically, technology is fixed in places you frequent, instead of a human investigator who stakes you out. Examples may include video and sound recorders.
- Tracking: Tracking is simply the act of determining where youre going and where youve been. Time frames vary. Sometimes, investigators may literally follow you around inconspicuously. Other times, investigators use various tracking technologies. These mechanisms can include GPS tracking and location appamong other things.
Investigators Go Undercover To Catch People Committing Fraud
Oftentimes, when it comes to disability, whether its a disability claim, workers compensation claim, or personal injury claim, the insurance companies will do everything they can to try to minimize the amount of payment to the claimant. This means that they will hire a private investigator to monitor and follow you with a surveillance video camera or camera. Youll often see this when the claimant goes to the grocery store and push a cart of groceries, play with their three year old as they pick them up in the park, or when they are leaving their vehicle and carrying a bag full of groceries. Even though the surveillance video may be taken of out context or not show the full extent of the claimants pain and disability, the video will try to be used as evidence that the claimant is not disabled, even though it may just be a small snapshot of that persons life.
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