How Social Media Can Affect Your Personal Injury Case
We live in a very technologically savvy world, where most people are eager to reach out to friends, family, and even strangers, via social media. These social media sites and applications are used to share status updates, pictures, videos, and more. At Tawwater Law Firm, PLLC our injury attorneys fight hard to ensure that our clients’ rights are protected in personal injury cases, and to do that, we advise these clients to practice extreme caution when sharing information on social media. To learn how social medical can affect your personal injury case, contact our Oklahoma City, OK practice. Here, we discuss why it is important to practice discretion and avoid discussing your personal injury case on social media.
Social Media Is Not Private
First, we want our clients to understand that social media is not private. While each site has privacy settings that can be adjusted, it is important to operate under the assumption that the public may see anything that is on a social media site. This includes insurance companies and attorneys that may be involved in your personal injury claim. Any information that is found on social media sites (photos, current status updates, past status updates, etc.) may be used as evidence in a court of law, and this has the potential to damage a personal injury case.
Practicing Caution on Social Media Sites
Any social media site that a client belongs to, whether it be Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, may be searched in an attempt to gather evidence to discredit a personal injury case. While there is no guarantee that a person can completely protect their privacy on social media, there are precautions that should be taken to help minimize the impact that social media can have on a personal injury case:
- Adjust privacy settings: Access the privacy settings and set your account to the strictest privacy settings. Ideally, posts should only be viewable by friends.
- Limit posts: Keeping a low profile while involved in a personal injury case is a good idea. It is especially important to avoid posting status updates related to injuries suffered, or any pictures that show participation in an activity that may call the extent of physical injuries into question.
- Remove past posts: Past posts can also be used as evidence, so any potentially damaging posts should be removed. For example, if there is a post about a sore neck weeks before involvement in an auto accident, that post could be used to question whether injuries suffered were exclusively the result of the auto accident.
- Ask friends to refrain from posting about you: You do not just have to worry about your own posts. It is important to ask friends to refrain from tagging you in posts or sharing photos of you via social media.
Again, there is no way (other than removing yourself from social media) to ensure that your online privacy is protected, so the best advice in regards to posting on social media during a personal injury case is to just assume that the information will be seen by the opposing party or insurer. To ensure that your case is not affected, refrain from posting any potentially damaging information.
Schedule a Consultation
If you’ve been injured and believe that another person or party is responsible for those injuries, it is important to discuss your case with an experienced personal injury attorney such as those at Tawwater Law Firm, PLLC. Our attorneys will be happy to go over the details of your accident and advise you on your best course of legal action. Schedule a consultation at your earliest convenience to learn more.