personal injury investigations Archives

Solid Investigation Prevents Scammers from Bullying Victims

When Paul and his attorney came into the and shared his story, we were not exactly shocked. Like our staff, Paul is well aware of numerous scamming attempts made by criminals. Despite that knowledge, he found himself a victim. It all began on a congested city street one snowy afternoon around rush hour. Paul was startled by a loud thunk sound. He wondered if kids made his vehicle their target with a snowball filled with rocks, or if perhaps that sound was explained by a chunk of ice melting and falling away from the undercarriage. But then he noticed a female driving an older model car honking and waving in his direction. She motioned for him to roll his window down and insisted that he [...]

Vehicle Accident Investigation Collects Facts for Decisions

When you think of an automobile insurance claim, you probably think of a police report and an insurance claim. You probably don’t think of reasons why a firm like might be hired for a vehicle accident investigation, do you? Here is an example of why attorneys (and their clients) call : There was an automobile accident and it was determined that the driver of one of the vehicles was responsible for causing the crash. That person died. That driver had injury insurance, but the injuries sustained by the person in the other car exceeded the coverage. In this case, the injured driver wanted to file a lawsuit against the responsible driver to cover the remaining medical expenses. Their attorney contacted us to see if that [...]

Vehicle Accident Investigation Reveals After-the-Fact Insurance

People buy insurance for all those unexpected happenings in life. But not all people have insurance in place when those events occur. And that can lead to problems – for a lot of people. The Natchez Democrat told the story of a man in Mississippi found himself in that latter group. He did not have insurance and hit a deer. He called a friend who encouraged him to get insurance immediately – and (here’s the rub) then claim the accident occurred after the policy was issued. So, that’s what he did. After getting the policy, the claim was submitted, which prompted a vehicle accident investigation. Sometimes it is not clear when gets called into a case whether it includes auto bodily injuries. But because our [...]

Personal Injury Investigation Reveals Fake Job and Fake Wages

When insurance claims are approved and benefits begin, that doesn’t mean the case is closed. Especially if the insurance claims adjuster sees one or more red flags. In that case, an insurance company may hire private insurance fraud investigators for a brief surveillance – maybe a day or two. In that short time frame, the investigator might not uncover any evidence of fraud. However, many adjusters make a note to revisit the case for a review. This happens often in suspected workers’ compensation fraud, disability insurance fraud or other sorts of situations that result in personal injury investigations. And what is uncovered in a review can be more intriguing than a made-for-TV movie. Just this month The Daily Southerner reported on a couple in Tarboro, [...]

Staged Accidents Cost Big Money in Insurance Fraud

is seeing a growing incidence of insurance fraud, specifically, in auto bodily injury (ABI) cases. Part of the increase in claims is due to contrived accidents, which are also called set up auto accidents or staged accidents. These accidents involve a large number of people – both “victims” and service providers (car repairs, doctors, chiropractors) – and cost insurance consumers billions of dollars in increased premiums. The way it works is this: Several vehicles, say up to 10, are hired. The drivers of the vehicles and their passengers are paid a stated amount (could be $1,000 - $2,000) to participate. They drive in a pack on the highway, box in a car and cause an accident. Often that is stopping suddenly in front of the [...]

Insurance Fraud Investigators Throw a Black Flag on Racer’s Claims

Insurance fraud costs insurance companies and, subsequently, their customers, a huge amount of money every year. We believe that insurance companies do want to pay the legitimate claims as much as they want to ferret out the cases where claims are fraudulent. But it is often difficult to tell the difference. Soft tissue injuries are difficult to prove or disprove. Sometimes these are part of slip and fall injury claims, sometimes the underpinning of a personal injury investigation or an auto bodily injury investigation. In this case, it was a both a workers compensation fraud investigation and a long term disability fraud investigation. This memorable case was that of a young man who said he was hurt at work. No one witnessed the accident, but [...]