Slater and Gordon has called for a code of practice for insurance surveillance after it said many frontline police officers reported their mental health conditions deteriorated as a result of intrusive practices from insurers.
The law firm said that some insurance companies were taking excessive measures to investigate the veracity of compensation claims.
Slater and Gordon general manager, Rachael James, said a code of practice that clearly specified the boundaries for surveillance of claimants by insurance providers was vital to prevent further deterioration of mental health conditions.
“Some claimants are being followed for weeks, with hundreds of hours of surveillance footage and pages and pages of online activity collated in an attempt to disprove their suffering,” James said.
While courts have said three months was the average processing time for superannuation insurers dealing with total and permanent disability (TPD) claims, cases were taking much longer to resolve.
“There are always circumstances where more time is required, but an analysis of Slater and Gordon’s finalised claims from 2014/15 revealed very few cases were being resolved within that timeframe,” James said.
“Our figures show just one quarter of superannuation physical and psychiatric disability cases were resolved in less than three months and one fifth took more than nine months.”
She added that while insurers were legally obliged to act with “utmost good faith and fair dealing” during the claims process, excessive surveillance did not fulfil this duty.
The law firm cited an example of one frontline police officer, Greg, who had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and was subject to intense surveillance.
“They’ve filmed me and my family for 80 hours in total, including taking pictures of my wife and kids at the beach — it makes me feel like a criminal,” he said.
