Worker’s Compensation Investigations

Private investigators are ideal candidates to conduct workplace compensation investigations for your business or organization. When it comes to a they said-they said crisis in which both employer and employee are claiming misconduct, workers’ comp investigations need an independent set of eyes to perform due-diligence. At Lauth, our workers’ comp investigators are loyal only to the truth. Their independence and objectivity ensure that the investigation is comprehensive and unbiased, and their ability to surveil potential fraud undetected makes private investigators invaluable assets to these investigations.

By the definition of “internal,” internal investigators cannot possibly conduct an objective investigation into a claim of workers’ compensation fraud. After all, an internal employee directly represents the company, which stands to lose money in profits and in insurance costs. This type of investigator cannot fundamentally be objective. Because worker’s compensation fraud investigations can have a tricky narrative of “they said-they said,” in which employer and employee are trying to convince external parties of one narrative or another. This is why an internal investigator can prove problematic. Their internal status gives them an implicit bias towards the corporation or organization in what could be characterized as a direct or indirect stake in the outcome of the workers’ compensation investigation.

When an employer makes the decision to terminate an employee based on a biased investigation, the consequences can snowball. Employees might feel compelled to file a wrongful termination suit against the employer. This can be especially consequential if the employee can provide the medical records to support their worker’s compensation claim. When worker’s compensation cases go to court, an internal investigator might also be determined to be implicitly biased in the eyes of the court. If the court rules that the employer did not do their due-diligence before terminating the employee, the litigation costs and settlement(s) can devastate a business.

A private investigator is the perfect investigator for a worker’s compensation fraud investigation. Their independence, combined with diversified experience is the perfect resume for this type of investigation. Through their licensure by the state in which they are headquartered, private investigators have access to similar databases like that of law enforcement to develop leads and provide crucial context to the investigation. Employers who conduct worker’s compensation fraud investigations internally can expect that the information they garner will be scrutinized heavily by a court. When a third-party investigator documents the workers’ comp fraud, it becomes harder for counsel to discredit this evidence in any subsequent litigation. At Lauth Investigations International, our private investigators are only loyal to the truth.

Private investigators use surveillance technology to get the answers you need in a workers’ compensation investigation. Once reasonable suspicion has been established, there needs to be a fundamental understanding of the condition outlined in an employee’s workers’ comp claim. Through this due-diligence, the private investigator will be able to clearly identify any contradictions to the workers’ comp claim in the employee’s behavior. We document the movements of the relevant subjects in these cases so that leadership will have a clear picture of an employee’s level of mobility or health and whether or not that is congruent with the claim they made when filing for workers’ compensation. In tandem with our objectivity, evidence gathered during surveillance stands strong against accusations of sensationalism or doctoring the evidence.

In addition to the objectivity that comes with hiring a private investigator for your workers’ compensation investigation, this subcontract can also save you money. In the interest of due-diligence dozens of documents must be reviewed, processed, and itemized. Internal processes must be reviewed and evaluated by an internal investigator. It may be necessary to interview employees regarding their knowledge of the matter—those accounts must be cataloged, transcribed, and placed in context within the investigation. In addition to the tangible resources that are expended during the investigation, there’s hundreds of hours of labor hours that must be invoiced and paid out. The Fulbright Litigation Trends Survey presented data that indicated internal investigation costs were already on the rise back in 2011. Excluding the cost of settlements and judgements, they reported a median spend with American corporations of $1.4 million. Almost a quarter of those businesses reporting spent an excess of $5 million or more regarding internal complaints. For large companies with a wealth of resources, $5 million may seem like a drop in the bucket, but there are many smaller businesses who could easily be bankrupted by such a price tag. Those same companies also do not have the budget to maintain a specialized internal investigations team to address internal complaints when they arise.

At Lauth Investigations International, our workers’ comp investigation team is comprised of former military and law enforcement with diverse experience in intelligence-gathering. We used verified databases and proven methodology to provide our clients with crisp, crucial context in workers’ compensation investigations. Through this verified intelligence, private investigators can identify sites for surveillance, where they can document an employee’s movements and verify if they are behaving in accordance with their worker’s compensation claim. Because private investigators only have loyalty to the truth, the evidence they gather stands up to a higher degree of scrutiny in any subsequent litigation. As part of our worker’s compensation fraud investigations, we provide detailed reports and expert recommendations.

If your corporation is experiencing persistent problems with workers’ compensation fraud, there might be a larger issue in your corporate culture. Corporate culture is how policies, leadership, and workplace dynamics interact to create a work-life balance. By improving your corporate culture, you can reduce instances of workers’ compensation fraud and keep compensation insurance premiums low. Our corporate culture audit program can be customized to your corporation’s needs and identify the contributing factors to a declining corporate culture. We can evaluate the entire corporation or just a single department and provide you with detailed recommendations on how to improve your business from within. Contact Lauth Investigations today for a free quote on our corporate culture audit and learn about how it can identify the problems that drag down profits and morale.