You’ve probably heard stories about people who have received workers’ compensation benefits but aren’t really injured. Local news programs sometimes report such stories. Certainly, workers’ compensation insurance companies do everything in their power to create the perception that all recipients of workers’ compensation benefits are lazy, shiftless cheats who are out to defraud the system. It is certainly true that some people do try cheat the system. Such people are justifiably condemned as they bring suspicion on the overwhelming majority of injured workers who have legitimate injuries. These workers, as well as their families, have suffered immensely – both physically and mentally. Having often endured extensive medical treatment, the loss of a job, and great economic hardship, it is the ultimate insult to question their integrity.
What is less publicized and less well-known is that, sometimes, workers’ compensation insurance carriers try to cheat the system. Below is a link to an article published in Courthouse News Service. This article documents a recent class action suit filed in California against several different workers’ compensation insurance carriers, one law firm, and a number of individuals. In the law suit, Hector Casillas, an injured worker in California, alleged that workers’ compensation insurance companies hacked into a website utilized by the law firm who represented him and stole his confidential information as well as the information of thousands of other individuals. Casillas further claims that the confidential information that was stolen was used by the insurance carriers to gain a litigation advantage.
It’s important to note that Casillas’s allegations haven’t yet been proven. Nonetheless, the case serves as a poignant reminder that insurance companies are constantly striving to get an upper hand against injured workers.