ARG’s Expert Investigative Division Blog Collection
How Can We Fight a Workers’ Compensation Claim?
How can we fight a workers’ compensation claim? If you have reason to believe that your claimant is malingering or lying about a workplace-related injury, do your due diligence. Consider the possibility of conducting surveillance, a social media investigation, or...
How Often Are Claims by Employees Exaggerated or False?
How often are claims by employees exaggerated or false? Nearly a quarter of all lost time claims are exaggerated. Called malingering, this means that the claimant remains out of work longer than they should given their disability. Fraudulent activities like...
What is Chain of Custody?
What is chain of custody? Chain of custody is the proper treatment of evidence throughout an investigation. When it comes to fraud investigations, documents, notes, or video obtained in the field by an investigator must be delivered securely to the office of...
4 Ways to Prevent Workplace Violence
It’s a story told all too often--a disgruntled employee with access to weapons lashes out at coworkers in a violent rampage. Usually, the perpetrator has specific targets in mind, but innocent bystanders are frequently injured or killed, as well. As an employer, it’s...
What Constitutes Fraud?
What constitutes fraud? According to the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board, “People who submit a false claim are committing fraud. People who get hurt participating in a leisure activity on Sunday and report it on Monday as a work-related accident are...
How Can Our Company Fight Fraud?
How can our company fight fraud? The best way to fight fraud in the workplace is with information. Conduct pre-employment background investigations on all new hires. This can turn up information from past employers or educational references that might speak to...
What is Risk Mitigation?
What is risk mitigation? Mitigating risk is a tremendously important concept. Entire industries, such as insurance, preventative healthcare, and investigations are founded on the notion of risk mitigation. When you hear the term, though, do you know exactly...
What is Due Diligence?
What is due diligence? If you’re familiar with investigations, you’ve likely heard the term “due diligence” used in the past. What does it mean, exactly? By definition, due diligence indicates reasonable steps taken by a person in order to satisfy a legal requirement....
Is Workers’ Compensation Fraud a Crime?
Is workers’ compensation fraud a crime? Fraud of all kinds, including workers’ compensation fraud, is a Class E felony and is punishable by fines and/or jail time. If you have reason to believe that your claimant is malingering or lying about a...
What is Extreme Hardship Redetermination?
What is extreme hardship redetermination? Extreme hardship redetermination means that a claimant can request to be reclassified to Permanent Total Disability or Total Industrial Disability due to extreme hardship. Information on this classification can be found...