Will the insurance company for the person who injured me really hire somebody to do surveillance on me?

The answer to the first part of this question largely depends upon the nature and severity of your injury, and the relative size of your personal injury claim.  Good, meaningful surveillance is fairly expensive, so insurance companies generally won’t spend money on hiring a private investigator to do surveillance unless the injured person is seeking significant damages in his or her claim.

Generally, surveillance is most valuable to an insurance company or defendant if the injured person/plaintiff has lied about or overstated his injuries.  If the plaintiff has lied or overstated his injuries, then video evidence showing that the plaintiff really isn’t injury, or really can do an activity that he said he couldn’t, can be devastating.

As long as an injured person has been completely honest — as they should be — about their injuries and their restriction and limitations, surveillance should really be of no consequence in a personal injury case.