Workers' comp investigator on my jobsite right now: what to say in the first 15 minutes

By Adrian Middleton · Tuesday, October 20, 2026

What is happening

A Bureau of Compliance investigator has walked onto your site. Section 440.107(3), Florida Statutes, gives the Department the power to enter and inspect any place of business at any reasonable time, to examine and copy business records, to administer oaths and issue subpoenas, and to issue stop-work orders. An open job site does not require a warrant. The investigator is already doing three things: identifying every person working, asking each of them who they work for, how long they have been there and how they are paid, and checking the Division's coverage and exemption databases for the company name they give.

I did this job. The first fifteen minutes are the case. What the crew says goes onto field interview worksheets, and nothing the owner says later is treated as more reliable than what the crew said first.

What to say

1. Identify yourself and your company. Name, company name, your role. That is all the identification the investigator needs from you.
2. Say that your attorney will be in contact. Then say it again when the next question comes. You are entitled to counsel and the investigator knows it.
3. Call (850) 766-6825 while the investigator is still there. If I can speak to the investigator on site, I will. That conversation is better coming from a former investigator than from you.

What not to say

Section 440.105(4)(a)3 makes knowingly failing to secure required coverage insurance fraud: a third-degree felony under $20,000, second-degree from $20,000, first-degree at $100,000 or more (s. 440.105(4)(f)). The element the State has to prove is that you knew. Every friendly question on the site is aimed at that element:

• "How long have these guys worked for you?" establishes employment and the penalty period.
• "How do you pay them?" establishes payroll and whether cash was involved.
• "Did you have a policy before?" establishes knowledge.
• "Are they subs?" invites a misrepresentation that costs $5,000 per worker under section 440.107(7)(f) if they are not.

Do not answer any of them. Do not guess at headcount, start dates or rates. Do not explain. An honest answer is an element of the offense and a wrong answer is a separate one.

Three more rules for the site

• Do not sign anything. Not a field worksheet, not a payroll summary, not an acknowledgment. Nothing handed to you on site has to be signed that day.
• Do not hand over records. The written records request comes with its own 21-day clock, and what you produce should be decided after you know what is in it. See the records request.
• Do not tell the crew what to say. You may tell them they are free to decline to answer and may ask for the company's lawyer. Coaching them is a different problem.

If the order is posted

Once the order is served or posted, work stops. Everywhere, not just this site, once the employer is served. Each day of operation in violation is $1,000 under section 440.107(7)(c), and knowingly violating the order is itself a felony under section 440.105(4)(b)8. Sending the crew home costs a day. Finishing the roof has turned civil penalties into criminal cases more than any other decision I have seen.

Then write down everything: who the investigator spoke to, what each worker said, what was photographed, what was handed over. The investigator's notes will be exact. Yours should be too.

The full list is on the do's and don'ts page and in the served-today checklist.