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4 Things to Know About Social Media and Your Personal Injury Lawsuit
February 24, 2022
With smartphones and instant connectivity in almost everyone's pockets, people constantly document the activities they engage in. Many times this is by taking pictures of the activities. Unfortunately, if you are involved in a personal injury lawsuit, innocently sharing these events on social media can harm your case. Understanding some basic facts about your social media accounts is the first step to overcoming this hurdle. Here are a few.
1. Your Social Media Accounts Will Be Checked
If you have any presence on social media, the opposing attorneys or their investigators will check your social media accounts. They are looking for anything to refute any information you state during your case. The investigators can turn up numerous things about you, including the following:
• Photos
• Personal profiles
• Posts
• Private Messages
Unfortunately, the attorney may not use the information as you intended. The opposing attorneys will often present this information in nefarious ways to discredit you and minimize any claim they have to payout.
2. There Is Nothing Private on Social Media
Most people feel that by setting and monitoring their privacy settings on social media, they can contain any information shared to just friends and family. Unfortunately, this is not always true. Some workarounds allow anything you post to be accessed, downloaded, and publicly distributed with people outside your desired network.
When information is shared this way, it continues to live on beyond the standard 24 hours
of an Instagram story or after you have deleted the post. Unfortunately, once this information is publicly shared, there is no way to track who sees it.
Even if you have stringent privacy settings enabled, there are ways they can still access your accounts. The attorney can access your information through a subpoena or other means during the discovery process.
3. Your Social Media Post Can Contradict Your Testimony
During your personal injury lawsuit, you will be asked numerous questions by your attorney and by the attorneys from the other side. Some common questions include:
• What happened?
• What injuries did you incur?
• What is your current health status?
• What activities you are currently able to participate in?
• What things you can no longer do?
The attorneys will usually record your answers through dispositions during your case's discovery phase before any court dates. Your attorney will take depositions to strengthen your case while opposing counsel will take depositions to weaken your case.
Opposing counsel will record your testimony before using information collected from your social media accounts to attempt to contradict your testimony.
For example, if you state your shoulder injuries prevent you from lifting your arm higher than a certain point, they may use a check-in you posted at the gun range to refute your claim. You may have just been at the shooting range with a friend, but the attorney will attempt to make it look like you were a participant.
Your attorney may be able to ask additional questions to clarify your statements, but it is not worth taking that chance.
4. Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Is Not an Option
You may think one of the easiest things to do to avoid any potential social media damage is to delete any accounts you have. Unfortunately, this is not an option.
California Penal Code 135
addresses altering or deleting information as a misdemeanor. If opposing attorneys could use anything in your accounts as evidence, deleting these accounts can make you guilty of a misdemeanor.
Frank Penney Injury Lawyers will be glad to discuss how your social media posts can affect your personal injury case with you. We have years of experience and can navigate around any damage this information may pose. Give us a call
today for a free consultation on your case.
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