Insurance Company Tactics: Surveillance
We’ve discussed before how insurers often use surveillance in disability claims. Physicians’ claims and dentists’ claims, in particular, are often targeted due to the high benefit amounts the company can save by denying or terminating the claim. Accordingly, professionals filing claims should expect that they’ll be under surveillance at least once, and sometimes several times, throughout the course of their claim.
If the company is able to obtain surveillance footage, the company may overstate the significance of the footage in an effort to deny or terminate benefits. The case of Fleming v. Unum[1] illustrates how insurers use surveillance as a tactic to improperly terminate benefits. Pamela Fleming worked a litigation attorney until she was in a serious car accident and suffered severe injuries to her neck and thoracic spine, leaving her unable to work. Fleming had own occupation policies that defined “disability” as the inability to do the material and substantial duties of her occupation.
After having paid her claim for over a decade, Unum hired a surveillance company to videotape Fleming. The surveillance video showed Fleming throwing away a bag of garbage, putting a cooler in her car, and then driving a significant distance. Unum told Fleming that the footage conflicted with her previously reported limitations and terminated her benefits.
When her claim was denied, Fleming sued Unum and the court ultimately reversed the claim denial. In doing so, the court determined that Unum had greatly overemphasized the significance of the surveillance footage. The court noted that while the video showed Fleming lifting a garbage bag, “[l]ifting the bag over her head was no feat of strength or indication of recovery” because it was clear from the surveillance footage itself that “the bag of trash contain[ed] empty plastic bottles.” The court then concluded that “[t]he fact that Fleming took out the trash or bent down to place a one-pound cooler in her car does not render her capable of full-time employment as a litigation attorney.”
Similarly, the court criticized Unum for taking the footage out of context, observing that the footage “shows Fleming leaving her apartment once—for a doctor’s appointment—over the course of two days.” The Court then noted that “[b]oth coming and going from her apartment, Fleming walked gingerly down and up a flight of stairs, one step at a time, while holding onto the handrail for support” and concluded, “[i]f anything, the surveillance footage confirms that Fleming spent the majority of her time at home and had to utilize extreme care when leaving her apartment . . . . The Court sees no reason to credit Unum’s 15 minutes of surveillance footage from one day here, especially when it is contradicted by over ten years of medical records” (emphasis added).
Luckily for Fleming, the judge in her case saw through Unum’s attempt to improperly terminate her claim. But, unfortunately, judges and juries can all too often put undue weight on surveillance footage, because it is easy to present out of context and is more interesting and attention-grabbing than other relevant evidence, such as medical records and doctors’ opinions. Consequently, it is likely that companies will continue to take this sort of footage out of context, in the hopes that claimants will give up and not challenge the denial, or give in and accept a low-ball settlement once their benefits are cut off.
Every claim is unique and the discussion above is only a limited summary of the court’s ruling in this case. If you feel that your insurer is improperly using surveillance, an experienced disability insurance attorney can help you assess your particular situation and determine whether the insurer’s action is appropriate.
[1] Fleming v. Unum, 2018 WL 6133859 (2018).