Impact of surveillance on workers' compensation claims

By Brad Young, Harris Young Kayser

This is a situation that arises on a weekly basis: should we obtain surveillance on a claimant? As you can see from this decision from the Missouri Court of Appeals in September 2025, surveillance can have an enormous impact on the outcome of a claim.

Case Summary: Byers v. New Prime

The claimant suffered a compensable accident and presented both medical and vocational evidence that he was permanently and totally disabled. The employer had the claimant examined by Dr. Lennard. Most importantly, the employer obtained surveillance of the claimant one day after the exam with Dr. Lennard. When he saw Dr. Lennard, the claimant rated his neck pain at 6/10 and his low back pain at 10/10 and stated that he had no range of motion in his neck or low back.

Dr. Lennard’s supplemental report (as described by the ALJ):

“Dr. Lennard noted that the surveillance showed the employee to demonstrate full range of motion in his cervical spine without difficulty. He also was ‘seen to move freely while pulling luggage, sit upright, sit slumped, bend and walk without difficulty.’ Dr. Lennard notes that the surveillance was ‘in marked contrast to [his] exam on 9/30/15.’”

Instead of awarding permanent total disability plus lifetime medical care, the Missouri Labor and Industrial Relations Commission awarded 20% of the body and no future medical care. The Court of Appeals upheld this award in their September 2025 decision.

Keys to Obtaining Successful Surveillance

We have all viewed surveillance video that shows nothing more than a claimant getting out of his car and going into the house. That type of video does nothing to help defend a workers’ compensation claim. The surveillance in Byers worked because it checked all of the following boxes:

• Use surveillance to answer key questions.

• Use surveillance on claims with multiple red flags, such as inconsistent medical reports, delayed reporting, or anonymous tips.

• Financially significant claims that could impact reserves or premiums may warrant surveillance.

• Always check social media before surveillance for clues to activity that can become the focus of the surveillance.

Answering Questions

In Byers, the employer used the Independent Medical Examination (IME) and surveillance to answer this question: ‘Is the claimant exaggerating the extent of his disability?’ The surveillance worked perfectly here because the IME documented the claimant’s exaggerated physical complaints and self-imposed restrictions, and the surveillance video provided evidence that contradicted both the exaggerated complaints and the fabricated restrictions.

Always frame the question to be answered by surveillance before you move forward. While this approach will not guarantee successful surveillance, it will absolutely improve the odds of obtaining useful and beneficial surveillance that will have a positive impact on the outcome of a claim.

Please let me know if you have any questions about this approach, and feel free to call me if you have any questions about how to proceed in similar situations. I’m always happy to help.

Brad Young may be reached at byoung@hyklegal.com or by phone (636) 532-0300