Most people use social media to document all areas of their life. However, personal injury attorneys are extremely adept and skilled at obtaining destructive or incriminating evidence regarding a victim of a personal injury, in an attempt to discredit their claims of physical injury or personal harm.
It is critical to remember that all of your social media accounts including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and others are always up for public consumption even if you have your settings listed as private. Any of your friends or family members can take a screenshot of your social media postings or pictures and then send them to anyone else at any time, making any social media account not truly private. Your post and pictures on social media can negatively impact your ability to receive compensation for your personal injury claim.
How can social media posts hurt my claim?
Before addressing how social media posts can hurt your chances of receiving the maximum amount of compensation for your personal injury claim, it is critical that you realize that your personal injury case is a serious legal proceeding. Courts, judges, and our legal system are always deserving of respect. Therefore, if you make any comments regarding the judge, the court proceeding, or attempt to make light of a serious court matter, it can also be used against you by the court.
Next, it is important to understand that social media does not portray the truth. Any image can be manipulated or changed to present circumstances or reality that is not what actually occurred. Therefore, if you post images on social media regarding outings with friends, workouts you are doing, or racing motorcycles, your claims regarding how severe your injuries are related to the accident will become immediately suspect. This is true even if what you are posting is completely innocent or benign. Our best recommendation is that clients stay completely off of social media until their personal injury case is completed.
What if I posted something that I regret? Should I delete it?
The law is clear on this topic. You should absolutely never delete anything from your social media accounts if you have an ongoing personal injury case related to a car accident or any other type of claim regarding the negligence of another person. The reason is that any removal of possible evidence can be considered by a court of law to be obstruction of justice, destruction of evidence, or tampering with evidence. therefore, you should never delete anything from your social media accounts at any time if you are involved in a personal injury case.
Contact an Experienced Personal Injury Attorney
If you were injured due to someone else’s negligence, contact an experienced personal injury attorney at Groth Law at (414) 768-2727 for a free consultation today.