Insurer surveillance is routine in any injury claim large enough to litigate. Once you file, the insurer may hire a private investigator to film you in public and an analyst to read your social media, looking for a moment that contradicts your medical records. This page explains why they do it, what they are allowed to do, when in the litigation it happens, and what to do about it.
Insurers in Atlantic Canada Watch Claimants to Cut What They Pay
An insurer is a business, and its aim in a claim is to pay as little as it can. Clients ask, often in the first meeting, whether they are being watched. Assume you are.
Adjusters hire investigators to find footage that contradicts the injury. If they film you carrying a heavy box of groceries, that clip becomes the argument that you are not as hurt as you say.
Adjusters Order Insurer Surveillance to Attack Credibility
The defence looks for any reason to deny or reduce a claim for general or special damages. Surveillance looks for a gap between what the medical records say and how you move in public. Its purpose is to attack credibility.
If you say you cannot sit for more than twenty minutes and video shows you driving for two hours, the claim is compromised. The clip will be played at discovery or at trial, and the question will be why the sworn account and the video differ.
A Few Thousand Dollars of Video Can Save an Insurer Hundreds of Thousands
Investigators are not cheap, and insurers do not send one after every fender bender. Their fee is a line in the adjuster’s reserve for the file, approved when the claim is large enough to justify it. Where the claim is large or involves long-term disability, surveillance is likely. A few thousand dollars on video can save an insurer hundreds of thousands in settlement. That arithmetic is why following your doctor’s restrictions protects the claim as much as your recovery.
Insurer Surveillance Is Allowed Because the Defence May Test the Claim
Litigation is adversarial. When the plaintiff, the injured person bringing the claim, says they cannot lift, walk far or work, the defendant’s insurer is entitled to test that. That is where investigators come in.
They look for inconsistencies with the limits your medical team has documented. A small discrepancy becomes the argument that you exaggerate or fabricate.
It applies to both heads of damage. General damages cover pain, suffering and loss of enjoyment of life. Special damages cover measurable losses such as wages and medical costs. Surveillance is used to argue you are not in pain, or that you could be earning.
Investigators Film You in Public From Unmarked Vehicles
Physical surveillance is a licensed investigator watching you in public. They park an unmarked vehicle near your home and wait for you to leave, then record what you do.
They follow you to the grocery store, the pharmacy and medical appointments, watching how you get in and out of the car, what you carry and how freely you move. The most common targets include:
- Carrying heavy grocery bags or pet food.
- Yard work: shovelling snow, mowing the lawn.
- Bending to pick up a child or a dropped item.
- Walking without a prescribed cane or brace.
- Sports and recreation.
They use long lenses and hidden cameras and shoot hours of footage, then hand over the few minutes that serve the defence. The full footage, including the hours of nothing, must be disclosed, and the firm asks for all of it. Those minutes are played at the Examination for Discovery or at trial. An investigator’s report accompanies the video and describes what was seen on the days nothing was filmed, which is usually most of them.
Chronic pain has good days and bad days, and a treating physician will say so in evidence. You may carry a bag on Tuesday and spend Wednesday in bed from the flare-up. The camera records the bag, not the bed. The firm’s job is to put the rest of the week in front of the judge.
Investigators Read Your Social Media, Your Friends’ Accounts and Photo Metadata
Digital monitoring is cheaper and faster than a car outside the house, and it happens in almost every modern claim. Adjusters build a profile of your life after the accident from Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn and Twitter: photos, status updates, check-ins, videos.
A photo of you smiling at a family barbecue becomes the argument that the claim for emotional distress is exaggerated.
It reaches beyond your own posts. Investigators read your friends’, family’s and colleagues’ accounts for photos you are tagged in. You cannot control what others post, which makes this the most dangerous channel.
Metadata gives the time, date and location a photo was taken. If you say you were bedridden on a date and a tagged photo places you at a public event that day, the defence uses it against your honesty.
LinkedIn matters where the claim includes lost wages or lost capacity to work. New employment, networking or anything suggesting physical capability at work is recorded.
The Focus of Surveillance Depends on the Injury Claimed
The focus depends on the injury. Motor vehicle collisions draw close attention, and a car accident lawyer should be involved early.
Car crash claimants often have soft tissue injuries, whiplash or chronic pain, none of which shows on film, so insurers are sceptical. Investigators watch neck and back movement for a quick head turn or a lift without visible discomfort.
Long-term disability (LTD) claims are surveilled aggressively. An LTD claimant says their condition prevents them doing their job, and the insurer has a strong financial reason to end monthly payments. A long-term disability lawyer evens the contest.
For LTD, investigators watch the daily routine. If you cannot sit at a desk for eight hours, they check whether you can sit in a coffee shop or drive for long stretches. They read social media for a side business, heavy volunteering or hobbies that need physical or mental effort.
Trip and fall claims involve orthopaedic injuries, so investigators watch crutches, walking boots and weight-bearing. Walk smoothly without the brace and the defence says the injury has healed.
Section B claims are watched too. If your own insurer suspects you are misrepresenting your recovery, it orders surveillance to justify ending rehabilitation funding.
Privacy Law Bars Trespass but Allows Filming From Public Places
Investigators are not unlimited. Canadian privacy law and the reasonable expectation of privacy set the boundary.
They cannot trespass. No looking through bedroom windows, no entering a fenced backyard, no hidden cameras inside the home. Those are breaches that expose the investigator to civil and criminal liability. The federal protections are in the Consolidated Acts of Canada.
They can record you in plain view from a public place. On your front porch, mowing the front lawn or leaving the driveway, you have no expectation of privacy from the street, and a car parked there can film you.
The same rule governs social media. Anything posted publicly is fair game. A public Facebook profile can be captured in full without your permission, and the capture is dated, so a post deleted later has already been saved.
Investigators also create fake profiles to get into private accounts, posing as an old acquaintance or someone with shared interests. Accept the request and they have everything you restricted. During a claim, accept no connection request from anyone you do not personally know.
If an investigator breaches privacy law, the evidence may be inadmissible. The firm reviews every piece of surveillance and how it was obtained, and moves to exclude what was gathered improperly.
Consistency and Private Accounts Protect the Claim From Insurer Surveillance
The strongest protection is consistency. Be accurate with your doctors and your lawyer, and let your public behaviour match your reported symptoms.
Do not exaggerate. If you tell your doctor you cannot lift more than five pounds and you are filmed lifting a twenty-pound bag of dog food, your credibility is gone. Say it the way it is: “I struggle to lift heavy items, and doing so causes severe pain later.”
Set every social media account to its highest privacy setting, and review the settings again after each platform update, because defaults change. Limit who can see posts, photos and tags. Remove anything public about the accident, the injuries or the claim.
- Accept no friend requests or followers from strangers.
- Ask friends and family not to post photos of you or tag you.
- Do not post about physical activity, holidays or celebrations.
- Do not discuss treatment, your lawyer or the insurer online.
- Consider deactivating accounts until the case is over.
Follow the treatment plan. Attend every appointment, physiotherapy session and specialist consultation. Footage of you skipping an appointment to run errands becomes the argument that you are not committed to recovery. Missed appointments also appear in the clinic’s records, which the insurer will have, so the two sources are read together.
For New Brunswick claims, the Moncton injury lawyers location page has the local contact.
If You Spot an Investigator, Do Not Confront Them; Record and Report
Plaintiffs often notice: the same vehicle parked down the street for days, someone holding a camera in a parking lot.
Stay calm and do not confront them. Approaching the vehicle or shouting can bring police involvement, and it gives the defence footage of you angry, which they will use.
Note the investigator’s appearance, the vehicle’s make, model and plate, and the time, date and place. Once you are somewhere private, call the firm. Knowing surveillance is underway lets your lawyer prepare for the footage at disclosure and advise you on conduct.
If the investigator drives recklessly, blocks your car or makes you fear for your safety, call police. Observation is permitted; harassment is not.
The Firm Reviews the Footage for Editing and Puts It in Context
Insurers count on the threat of footage to push claimants into low offers. The firm reads the footage instead.
It checks for editing, selective framing and activity taken out of context, and compares time stamps against the medical timeline. The aim is to show the defence’s clip as incomplete or wrong.
At trial or mediation the firm puts the footage in context. If a video shows you carrying groceries, the investigator is cross-examined on how long you rested afterwards, and medical experts explain why a moment of effort is not a recovery.
Every personal injury claim is on a contingency fee: no win, no fee, no hourly rate, no upfront cost.
Surveillance Peaks After Filing, Before Discovery and Before Trial
Insurers can investigate at any time, but certain stages bring more of it.
Surveillance spikes after the Statement of Claim is filed. That document starts the lawsuit, and the insurer responds by establishing a baseline of your activity early.
It spikes again before the Examination for Discovery, where defence counsel questions you under oath about the accident, the injuries and your limits. Investigators follow you in the days before, hoping for footage that contradicts the sworn evidence. At discovery you may be asked what you can and cannot do, and the footage is produced afterwards to contradict the answer. Answer those questions with the same accuracy you use with your doctor.
And it spikes before mediation or trial, when the defence wants last-minute material to weaken your position.
The limitation period in Atlantic Canada is two years, counted from discovery in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador, and from the event in Prince Edward Island. Throughout that time and after, the insurer may check your social media. Caution online lasts until the case ends.
Being Watched Causes Distress That Is Itself Part of the Claim
Being surveilled induces anxiety, paranoia and depression. Plaintiffs describe feeling imprisoned in their own homes.
That distress is a recognised part of an injury claim. If the insurer’s tactics worsen your mental health, have your doctors record it. Your lawyer can use it to support general damages for emotional suffering and loss of enjoyment of life.
Get support from a therapist who works with trauma and chronic pain. Those sessions are treatment, they are covered by the same benefits as physiotherapy in most policies, and their notes document the effect the claim itself is having on you. Do not let fear of the camera keep you from appointments or doctor-approved exercise; isolation slows recovery.
Tell the firm about the stress. Its lawyers have taken many clients through this and can explain what the surveillance can and cannot do to the claim.
FAQ
Can an Insurance Company Use Drones for Insurer Surveillance?
Drone use by investigators is a developing area. A drone looking into windows or a fenced backyard breaches privacy law and is trespass. A drone recording you in a public place where you have no expectation of privacy may produce admissible footage. The firm challenges invasive drone footage.
What Happens If I Accidentally Post a Photo From Before My Accident on Social Media?
Investigators often read the upload date as the date taken. If the defence uses an old photo to argue you are active now, your lawyer refutes it with the file’s metadata or witness evidence of when it was taken.
Can Investigators Monitor My Private Text Messages or Emails?
No. Intercepting or reading private texts, emails or calls breaches federal telecommunications and privacy law and carries criminal penalties. Surveillance is limited to public actions and publicly available information.
What Should I Do If I Spot a Private Investigator Following Me?
Do not confront them. Behave normally, keep to your medical restrictions and drive safely. Record the time, place and vehicle description and contact the firm.
Will My Insurance Cut Off My Section B Benefits If They Catch Me Doing Yard Work?
Possibly. Adjusters use surveillance to justify ending accident benefits. Footage of physical labour becomes the argument that you no longer need physiotherapy or income replacement, and you then have to fight for reinstatement.
How Long Does Insurer Surveillance Last?
There is no fixed period. It can recur through the whole claim: a few days after the accident, a social media check six months later, a tail before trial. Assume you may be observed until the case is settled or decided.