What injured workers and their families need to understand is that the claims department, claims agents, and lawyers for the railroad are working for the railroad and not for you. And there’s really a tremendous conflict there. Their bonuses, their pay increases, their promotions are tied to statistics of whether the company does well in these lawsuits against employees. An example of trust that I could show you that’s from a recent case I just tried we had an individual who was injured on the job and the railroad wanted to prove that he was injured off the job so they wouldn’t have to pay for it. On the very day that he was injured, turns in his accident report, or verbally turns it in, the railroad was already scouting to try to find ways to prove that he was hurt somewhere else.

One of the claims people for the railroad actually went – my client was from Whitefish, Montana and they traveled to Haver, Montana. They went to the place where these railroad employees stay in Haver, Montana to try to get video of my client from a previous stay to try to show that his wrist was already broken, which it wasn’t. And to do that, to get that video they had to tell the company that they were law enforcement officers, the claim agent did because otherwise, you’d have to subpoena it. So what this claims lady did is she fills out this form and this is an exhibit number from the trial, and what it says is law enforcement video request form.

In parenthesis, legal does not have to authorize the release of video copies, the request is deemed authorized when faxed. And under location it says Haver, Montana. Date requested: 7/27/2015. Time requested: they wanted video from 7:30 AM to 7:45 and late at night when my client had been there. It says requested by BNSF Railway. And most importantly, under there they’re claiming that BNSF Railway was a law enforcement agency. And name of the officer requesting it was Nancy B. Ahern. Nancy Ahern was a claims agent not a police officer.

And so, and then it says the video recording is requested for use in a criminal investigation or prosecution and for no other purpose. Then its signed signature of officer, Nancy Ahern, the date, and then they faxed it in to the town pump legal department. And this is how they got video of my client without a subpoena. And when I took her deposition I said, “You accused my client of lying but you filled this form out saying BNSF was a law enforcement agency. And you also said that you were an officer.” And she says, “Well, everybody knows that’s not true.” And I said, “Well then why did you sign it? Why did you turn it in?”

And worse, she’s bound by the same rules that my client was, nobody ever asked her if she violated a company rule on honesty or dishonesty and that’s the point. They have rules and if they want to pick on employees who were injured, they apply the rules to them but the same rules of honesty and trustworthiness they don’t follow them themselves. So if you want to trust a claims department that doesn’t follow its own rules of honesty in dealing with you or your loved ones that’s what you get when you trust them.