Many injured maritime workers want to know whether or not their employer will try to obtain tape surveillance of them during their Jones Act maritime injury claim. In almost all cases, a maritime employer will hire private investigators to investigate and try to videotape an injured Jones Act employee. There are several reasons that a maritime employer tries to obtain videotape surveillance of the injured employee.
A large part of any maritime injury claim is the degree to which the employee has been injured. Videotape surveillance can sometimes show the employee performing strenuous activities or heavy manual labor. One of the main reasons videotape surveillance can damage a Jones Act maritime claim is that it can sometimes show the employee performing strenuous or heavy activities. This type of videotape obviously proves that the employee has not been injured to any significant degree and it can greatly diminish the value of the claim.
Additionally, if videotape surveillance shows the injured employee performing activities which the injured employee has testified he can no longer perform, such videotape will also greatly damage the employee’s maritime injury claim. Even if the activities are not necessarily strenuous, the fact that the injured seaman has denied being able to perform such activities and he is now shown on video tape performing them, obviously this will hurt his claim. Very often we will encounter injured clients who unfortunately deny being capable of performing various activities even when it is apparent to us that the maritime employer has already obtained videotape of the employee performing these types of activities. It is always our recommendation for the injured employee to simply admit that they are capable of performing the activities.
A third reason many maritime companies obtain videotape surveillance on injured employees relates to a more “human” function of the videotape. When a maritime injury claim is tried in court, one of the main goals of the trial is to convey to the jury or judge that the injured employee’s life has been substantially changed as a result of the injury. Very often videotape will show the employee performing regular activities of life including playing with his children and running routine errands such as purchasing groceries or filling his automobile with gasoline at the service station. Although the employee is not shown performing any type of strenuous activities, nor does the injured employee deny that he actually played with his children on occasion or ran basic, necessary errands during his injury, the company will typically still try to use such videotape at trial since it tends to show that the employee’s life has continued even though he has become injured. Very often a jury will view the injured employee as continuing with his daily activities even though he has sustained an injury, especially when the jury is shown videotape of routine activities performed by the employee.
In today’s legal environment it is not uncommon for a maritime company to spend tens of thousands of dollars obtaining videotape surveillance of an injured employee. Typically this great expense will pay for itself especially if the employee is shown performing heavy activities on the videotape. Even if the employee is not performing strenuous activities on the videotape, sometimes the videotape can still serve the purpose of showing the jury that the injured employee’s life continues to “go on” despite the fact that he is injured. Videotape surveillance of an injured employee is often one of the most difficult challenges that will be faced at trial. If you have been injured and you are pursuing a maritime claim against your employer, it is important to remember that your employer may always be watching you and videotaping your activities.
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