Social media is everywhere these days. From Facebook to Instagram, the majority of Americans use a social media platform to keep up with family and friends. After a car accident or personal injury, it may feel tempting to post about your accident or case online. However, social media posts can harm your personal injury case significantly. As such, most personal injury lawyers recommend that you avoid social media until you settle your claim. Here’s why…
Why Social Media Posts Can Hurt Your Case
Social media posts can hurt your case in numerous ways. Posting about your recovery or your accident can give insurance companies the evidence they need to begin poking holes in your case.
They can use check-ins to show that your accident didn’t really derail your life or prevent you from enjoying yourself. They can use pictures to show that you were happy and not in pain. Likewise, they can even use what you say against you to show that you had something to do with the accident.
Consider this:
You have been in pain all day because of a back injury. However, you desperately want to attend your niece’s first birthday party. So you take your pain meds and go to the event. While you are there, you lie down and take it easy until it is time to cut the cake. You smile in the photos and then happily post them to social media saying, “Enjoyed spending her first birthday with her!”
Seems innocent enough, right?
However, the insurance company will see that photo and claim that you were obviously not in pain and that you were enjoying time at a kid’s birthday party instead of recovering and taking it easy.
Social media posts can give a false impression of your capabilities. This can do irreparable harm to your case. After all, most social medial posts fail to show the whole picture, and insurance companies use this to their advantage.
Even if you tighten your privacy settings and make your page ‘friends only’ there are things the other side can do to see your posts. In many personal injury cases, discovery rules apply, and the courts might request access as evidence in your case.
Contact Our California Personal Injury Lawyer
When in doubt, do not post about your case on social media without speaking to an experienced attorney. Your personal injury lawyer can give you guidelines to follow and help you understand what could harm your case. At Dolen, Tucker, Tierney & Abraham, our experienced personal injury attorneys can help you after you suffer an injury. We know the complexities of filing these types of injury claims, and we work quickly to get our injury clients the money they deserve. Give us a call at (909) 473-4948 and schedule a free consultation today.