The majority of the public uses many social media sites including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Social media websites are places where people post about their thoughts, experiences, and private personal feelings. Social media sites show photos and videos of activities. The social media sites also create a time record of activity. Unfortunately, if you are pursuing a personal injury case, insurance companies, and—when the case gets filed—their lawyers, often try to use your posts against you to discredit your case.

Your Posts on Social Media Can Negatively Impact Your Case

When you are pursuing a claim to seek a fair recovery for your damages after an injury in a car wreck, it is the job of the insurance company and their lawyers to find evidence to minimize your injuries. Insurance companies and their lawyers will do a thorough investigation of your background. This includes trying to get old medical records and employment records, but more importantly, they can use your own posts on social media to try to contradict your claim regarding injuries.

Social media posts can describe your activity level after a car wreck. Posts with photographs and videos can show you partook in physical activity after a car wreck. These posts can be very detrimental to your case. The activity that is either described or shown on these posts can be used by the defense to try to make it appear you are not as injured as you are claiming.

Posting on Social Media Can Negatively Impact Your Claim for Pain & Suffering

When you are injured in a car wreck, you have a claim for non-economic losses. Non-economic loss includes pain and suffering, mental anguish, disfigurement, disability, inconvenience, loss of enjoyment of life, and loss of consortium. It is common to experience depression and anxiety when your life changes as a result of your injury.

When most people put posts on Facebook, Twitter, or other social media, they typically try to think about how the post portrays them in the public eye. Most people try to show positive aspects of their lives instead of focusing on how an injury might be affecting them. As an example, most people try to smile when posting pictures. Most people try to portray themselves as having fun when posting. These postings portray your life typically in a positive manner. Insurance companies and their lawyers typically try to use these positive posts to prove that you are not really having any pain or suffering related to your injuries from the car wreck.

How Do I Handle Social Media While Pursuing a Personal Injury Case?

If you have been injured in a car wreck, just remember that the more information that the insurance company or their lawyers gather on you, the less likely you are to be successful while pursuing your case. To make sure social media does not negatively impact your injury claim, it is highly recommended to stop all social media postings following a car wreck. You need to make sure that all of your social media accounts are restricted to the highest privacy setting so that the insurance company and defense lawyers cannot access them. However, please remember during a lawsuit, they may still be able to access your private postings. It is never a good idea to accept a new friend or follow request without knowing who they are. If you accept a friend request from a paralegal working for the defense lawyer on your case, they will certainly access all of your information from your posts. During the litigation of your case, you may be required to disclose your account information, including passwords, so just remember to be careful how you handle your social media activity.

Contact an Experienced Auto Accident Attorney

Please remember an injury attorney is there to help you maximize the value of your case and prevent your case from being hurt by insurance company tactics. The attorneys at Brian and Brian at Pistotnik Law have over 47 years of experience helping injury victims and we have recovered in excess of $100,000,000 in recent years.

Please contact us to schedule your free consultation.