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A series of articles emphasizing practical
knowledge you can't find in practice guides
and interviews with experts who share
their techniques for effective and efficient
case management
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Articles emphasizing practical knowledge you
can't find in practice guides
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Profiles of people who changed workers’
compensation law.
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• Warren
Schneider
• Marjory Harris
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This issue, Marjory Harris reviews
some really bad movies.

The
Case of the Disappearing
Video, or “Injured Worker
Working, The Movie”
I waited patiently for defense
counsel to appear at a deposition
with the Agreed Medical Evaluator.
The adjuster had told me the
purpose of the deposition was to show surveillance videos to
the
AME. When defense counsel
arrived, I asked where the
equipment was. “What equipment?”
he asked. “Aren’t you showing
videos?” I asked. “No, I just had a
few questions of the doctor about
his report.” He then went on to ask
some questions that could have
been addressed in a supplemental
report. Later he as much as
admitted that when the insurance
company’s legal department saw
the video, on the day of the
deposition, they realized they had
to bury it. |
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Entrapment
Does the video prove the private
investigator violated the law? The investigator
is an agent of defendant.
Injured Worker’s Declaration
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It was the oddest video I had ever been sent. It began with
a man sitting on his
desk in an office with tacky wood paneling. He was wearing a
beret and
sunglasses and facing the camera. “This is [Name Changed],
private investigator
operating out of Fresno, California, license number [007].”
He states that the
videotaping will begin at around 10:00 a.m. and "will run
until done. All times and
dates on the videotape are accurate."
In the next scene, we are on the streets of San Francisco, on
a steep hill with the
Bay glittering in the sunlight. The man in the black beret and
sunglasses is now
standing by his truck, talking with Injured Worker.
Next we see Injured Worker gingerly wiping the truck with his
good arm. The bad
arm is in a sling. Note that Injured Worker has never denied
that he is trying to
establish a small business detailing vehicles. He is not receiving
either temporary
disability or state disability. He had told his doctor and the
AME that because of his
bad arm, it takes him so long to detail a vehicle that he cannot
make a living doing
this, as he had planned to before the industrial injury.
After some minutes showing Injured Worker slowly polishing the
side of the investigator's truck, the film abruptly ends.
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