How Social Media Can Affect Your Personal Injury Lawsuit

The posts that you make on social media can be used to corroborate your story by stakeholders in the case, such as insurance companies, police, the jury, or anyone that may be involved in the outcome of your case. It is far better to avoid posting on social media altogether than to go overboard and attempt to post about the case frequently. Any claims or posts that you make on social media can and will be used against you in court. Even if these posts are later deleted, so long as they are captured by screenshot, they may be admitted as evidence against you. 

One of the most common defenses that insurance companies or other drivers make in these claims is to argue that you are not as injured as you claim or that you may be responsible for the accident. 

For example, if you're arguing that you were seriously injured and that you're no longer able to go back to work or engage in many different types of activities, but yet you posted playing flag football with your friends last weekend, the insurance company can easily make the allegations that your injuries are not as severe as you claim and that you are fully capable of going back to work. 

Attorneys and personal injury claims often use social media posts to add context to their arguments, either to make allegations or to refute them. This is not limited to your own social media profile, either. Posts or photos from other people that tag you or show you could be used to disprove or prove your narrative. This includes things like your activities on a day-to-day basis, how you behave as a person, or even geolocation material. 

If your social media posts depict something other than what you're alleging in court, you can expect that your insurance investigators will look at platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, but they won't stop at your profile alone. They may look at your followers, your websites, and friends list to see if there are any details therein that could establish or disprove your side of the story. For example, insurance companies commonly look at things like: 

• Are you involved in any activities that could be making your injuries worse or limiting your ability to recover?
• What details are revealed about your accident claims?
• What locations do your social media profiles show that you visited?
• Do you have an active social life?
• Are you engaged in regular activities?

Make sure that you have thought about the possibility of someone else looking at your social media profiles because this discovery could influence the outcome of your lawsuit. Your lawyers at Morgan & Morgan can tell you more about the action steps you should take to protect yourself in the event of filing an injury claim and attempting to recover compensation. 

Our Morgan & Morgan personal injury lawyers recognize that it may not seem like a big deal to post a picture of you at a birthday party or even on the sidelines at a sporting event where you are not physically involved in the activity itself, but any and all information posted on your social media or posted on friends' social media about you could prove problematic for your case. It is very important to think twice before posting anything on social media, but it is also important for any friends and family members who wish to support you in your legal claim. 

Making offhand comments or sharing pictures and details about your life may open more questions about these issues and may cause you to have to respond in defense. It is far better to be knowledgeable about what you post and when, so that you can minimize the possibility of these problems showing up in the future.

In general, social media on your end is unlikely to help your case, and it is far better to be quiet on social media than it is to try to post things that you think will garner you favor or will throw off the other side. However, your attorney may be interested in exploring the social media post of any other parties involved in the accident, such as if the other person involved in your accident posted pictures of themselves out partying prior to the accident, which could indicate that they may have been under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the accident. 

Another way that social media could potentially help your case is if you were involved in a hit-and-run. If you were involved in a hit-and-run accident and don't know the name or identification of the other party, other people may have witnessed the accident. 

For example, if you belong to a community group, you may share pictures of the accident and ask anyone who may have been in the vicinity at the time of the crash to come forward with details. Although this may be a long shot, one of the most important components of establishing a hit-and-run lawsuit with a chance of damage recovery is to be able to identify the person who hit and left the scene. You'll want to discuss all possible options for identifying the person responsible for your accident, and the personal injury lawyers at Morgan & Morgan have helped many other victims and similar situations. 

A personal injury lawyer is one of the best and most important advocates for you when you've been hurt in an accident. You may not realize that the actions you take and the things you say following a car crash, motorcycle accident, bus accident, or slip and fall could have such significant repercussions for your future, but when you have been hurt because of someone else's actions you need to do everything possible to protect yourself—and that includes avoiding making any missteps or causing additional work for your attorney. It can be very difficult to unwind things that have been misinterpreted or misrepresented about your overall mental and physical health post-accident.

At Morgan & Morgan, our team of over 1,000 lawyers can help you protect your right to compensation and offer the proper guidance to help avoid any online blunders that could hurt your case. You can talk to one of our team members today—for free. In fact, we never charge clients a penny until we win their case.

Contact Morgan & Morgan now to get started.