The Potential Impact Social Media Could Have on Your Lawsuit

Suffering an injury that is due to another person or party’s negligence, misconduct, carelessness, or recklessness can be very unnerving, scary, and anxiety-producing. When your medical bills are mounting daily, and you aren’t able to pay them because your injuries have made you incapable of working, you may understandably have a significant amount of stress and anxiousness.

Social media posts can be used as evidence

Support from your caring family and friends can be helpful at such a time, especially if recovery from your injury becomes a long and challenging process. When lives are affected this way, it is common for people to take to public and private social media forums to post about what is occurring. 

However, if you are injured and are pursuing a legal case, several things should be taken into account before you either post publicly or even privately on social media. Posts on social media sites are regularly entered as evidence in personal injury cases. In most cases, the evidence that comes from social media does more harm than good.

This doesn’t mean that you should stop participating in your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or other social media account. But, you are well-advised to consult with your personal injury lawyer and get advice about what to post and what not to post. Your injury attorney will probably counsel you not to post anything whatsoever about your case. 

And, in particular, not to post any specifics regarding your injuries, medical issues, treatment, diagnosis, or recovery. It is also advisable that you do not mention any specific conversations that you have with your personal injury attorney or discuss any communications or negotiations that are in process with the insurance carrier in your lawsuit.

Be mindful of your privacy settings

It is helpful to think about who can see your social media posts, as well. You will probably want to avoid accepting friend requests from people you don’t know and block any followers that you are not familiar with. Keep in mind that anything and everything you share on social media can be used against you, no matter how innocent it may seem.

It is essential to be aware that when you are posting on social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter, even something that you would otherwise think is protected as “private” may be obtained and used against you in your lawsuit. Nothing is ever totally private on social media, and even if you post and later delete it, there’s still a record of what you posted somewhere. Insurance companies can and will root it out and attempt to use it against you.

If you have questions about how posting a status update or pictures on your social media accounts might affect your personal injury case, speak with a personal injury legal professional. Remember, your personal injury lawyer is working hard to get you the best possible outcome in your case. Be careful not to undo all that hard work with one seemingly “harmless” social media post.