Surveillance in Disability Files and Social Media

Surveillance in disability files is ordinary practice, not a sign that the insurer thinks you are committing fraud. Investigators are retained at predictable moments: shortly before a scheduled independent medical examination, before the change of definition, and after a report describes restrictions the adjuster doubts. Assume any long-running claim has been watched at least once.

What Surveillance in Disability Files Looks Like

An investigator sits outside the house for a day or several days and records what happens in public view. The product is a written log of many hours and a video reel of a few minutes. Everything unremarkable is left out. What survives is the walk to the car, the grocery bag, the twenty minutes of yard work, presented without the day that followed it.

What a Clip Can and Cannot Prove

Video proves that a person did a thing once, at a moment, for a length of time. It says nothing about pain afterwards, medication taken beforehand, or whether the activity could be repeated on a schedule an employer would accept. Most disability definitions ask about sustained capacity over a working day, so a clip only becomes damaging when it contradicts something you or your physician put in writing. Consistency between what you report and what you do is the whole defence, which is why the reporting described in the medical evidence chapter matters as much as the medicine.

Social Media Is Collected the Same Way

Adjusters and investigators review public profiles, and a vacation photograph is used in exactly the way a video clip is used. Courts have ordered production of private content where a party shows it is relevant, so a locked account is not a guarantee. Deleting posts after a claim starts is worse than leaving them, because destroying relevant material invites an adverse inference. Set accounts to private, stop posting about the claim, and leave what is already there alone.

Surveillance and the Independent Medical Examination Together

Insurers commonly send surveillance to the examining physician before the appointment. The report then answers the video instead of the file. You are entitled to know what was provided to an examiner and to ask for the complete claim file, including the investigator’s reports. That request also reveals which stated reason from why insurers deny the insurer intends to rely on.

What to Do While the File Is Open

Describe your bad days and your good days accurately to every clinician, because an overstated report is what surveillance is designed to catch. Nothing here suggests limiting reasonable activity; treating physicians usually want more movement, not less. The firm requests the surveillance and the underlying log before responding to any denial, as described on the long-term disability lawyer page, and the timing of that request runs against the deadline to sue. Decisions on the admissibility of surveillance are on CanLII.