ICBC and Surveillance: Should you be worried?
You may have heard stories of ICBC hiring investigators to follow people around with video cameras. Others may have told you stories of ICBC looking people up on their social media accounts. Are these stories true? Could ICBC really be snooping into your life?
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The answer is “yes”. If you have an open personal injury claim against ICBC, there is a chance that ICBC may look up your social media accounts. Similarly, ICBC may hire a private investigator to follow you around and take video footage of you going about your day to day life.
ICBC does not do this in every single case. In our experience, generally, the less “serious” your case is, the less likely ICBC will carry out surveillance on you. The most common type of case where ICBC does surveillance is when someone is not working due to their injuries. When someone is off work due to injury, there is a much greater likelihood ICBC will hire investigators to carry out surveillance. This is due to the fact that ICBC will want to try and get evidence to prove the injured person can work. If ICBC can prove that, they will not have to pay as much later when the case settles.
What is ICBC looking for when they snoop into your life? When they are carrying out investigations into your case, ICBC is looking for evidence of you being physically capable. In other words, they want to see you carrying groceries, or socializing with friends. They want to see any evidence of you being happy or not in pain that they can try and use against you later.
Again, just because you have a personal injury claim does not necessarily mean ICBC is snooping into your life. However, if you do have an open claim, it is a good idea to take some common sense precautions. For example, if you use Facebook, be sure to have your privacy settings appropriately adjusted to keep strangers away from your photos. The same goes for any other social media accounts. If you are disabled from working, the easiest thing to do to protect yourself is to avoid being a “hero” in public, and limit your physical activities. In other words, do not do more than your doctor says you can do. If your doctor says “no lifting”, do not go to the grocery store and try carrying 10 bags of groceries to your car. That may be the day ICBC has someone in the parking lot with a camera filming you.
Vancouver ICBC Claims Lawyer
10+ years ICBC injury claim settlement experience:
No fees until you get paid
Call us today for a free consultation 604-684-4300
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