Most people use their social media accounts to stay in touch with friends and family or as a daily journal. It often comes as a surprise to find out that social media activity can be used as evidence during a personal injury case. If you get injured in an accident in California, avoid posting anything to social media for the duration of your Orange County personal injury claim. You do not want to give an insurance company anything to use against you.
Questioning Your Injuries
Posting photographs or updates of you enjoying activities, such as daily hobbies or sports, can call an injury claim into question. An insurance company may use this as evidence to argue that you were not as badly injured in the accident as you stated – or not injured at all. Avoid using your social media to post about engaging in any type of physical activity or event after filing a claim stating that you suffered severe injuries that limited your physical abilities.
Challenging Your Version of Events
Resist the urge to post about your accident and injuries on social media. Anything that you post could be subpoenaed and submitted as evidence against you during a claim. What you post could be taken out of context and used by an insurance company to challenge the truth of what you are claiming. An insurer may try to use social media activity to establish that you were at fault for an accident, for example, or that you are not telling the truth about the extent or source of your injuries.
Undermining Your Credibility
If your social media activity contradicts how you have presented yourself during an injury claim, this could be used to undermine your credibility as a claimant. An insurance company may attempt to discredit your version of events or go as far as accusing you of insurance fraud if what you post on sites such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X does not align with the statements you have made about your accident or injuries.
Social Media Dos and Don’ts During a Personal Injury Claim
If you file a personal injury claim, you have the power to either help or hurt your case as the accident victim. Posting the wrong thing to a social media account could hurt your case, as the other side involved will most likely scrutinize your profiles to search for evidence to use against you. Protect yourself with a few basic social media dos and don’ts.
Do:
- Set your profiles to private.
- Be careful who you accept friend requests from during your case.
- Temporarily stop posting on social media while your case is pending.
- Tell your friends and family members not to tag you in any photos.
Do not:
- Assume you can post anything you want if your profiles are not publicly visible.
- Post anything related to your case or injuries on social media.
- Delete anything, as this could be used to accuse you of hiding evidence.
- Reach out to anyone who was involved in the accident via social media.
If you have to post on social media during your claim, make sure anything you post is consistent with your claim. You may use social media to post photos of your injuries and document recovery updates, for example, or to show how your injuries have negatively impacted your daily life.
If you have been involved in a car accident, slip and fall accident, or another type of harmful incident in Orange County, contact the Orange County personal injury lawyers at Bridgford, Gleason & Artinian for a free consultation about how to protect yourself during the claims process.