Say you’re working with a personal injury attorney in Melbourne, FL, to pursue damages after an accident. You could expect legal advice about speaking with insurance companies or gathering evidence from the accident. One possibly unanticipated area of advice surrounds your online activity.
Social media and personal injury claims can be a risky combination for plaintiffs. While social media platforms are a daily commodity for millions of people, they can be potentially harmful for those with pending injury cases.
If you’re pursuing compensation after an accident, you must be mindful of what you post online. Status updates, photos, and even temporary comments could have a damaging effect on your legal claim. Learn how your online posting could impact your case and what you can do as you await a resolution.
Insurance Companies Look for Reasons Not To Pay Victims Damages
When you file a personal injury claim after a workplace accident, car crash, or other incident, a third-party insurer usually handles the claim. Insurance companies protect their clients so they don’t have to pay damages out of their own pockets. However, they are also in the business of making money and often scrutinize any inconsistencies with someone’s claim, including information on social media.
These companies need ample evidence highlighting your injury and how it affects your lifestyle. Making a simple Facebook update about your injury could cause an insurer to question your claim, prompting them to offer a lower settlement.
When it comes to social media and personal injury claims, insurers will check your online presence in an effort to dispute your claim. It’s in your interest to keep quiet online while your claim is still pending. If it leads to a trial, you may need to take an even longer break from social media until the court proceedings end.
Social Media Posts May Unintentionally Devalue Your Claim
When you’re pursuing personal injury damages, lawyers recommend limiting your social media activity. Any information found on your accounts could be used against you. What you perceive as innocent activity could potentially support a defendant’s claim.
Take a closer look at how your online activity may affect your case.
There Could Be an Admission of Fault in Your Social Media Activity
Why is the connection between social media and personal injury claims so harmful? First and foremost, you may unintentionally admit fault in an accident when you post about it. If an insurance representative sees this, they could dispute your claim.
Suppose you post a photo of your damaged vehicle after a collision. When friends and family ask what happened, you may publicly offer details that should be concealed, such as how you looked up from your phone to see a vehicle coming at you head-on. Lawyers handling the case could view this as you admitting fault.
One comment like this could significantly impact how much compensation you receive, if any. Florida follows a modified comparative negligence rule, meaning that you’re ineligible to receive compensation if you bear more than 50% of the fault in an accident. You’ll only be eligible for partial damages if the court finds your fault percentage between 1% and 50%.
Posts or Updates Give Insights Into Your Accident or Injury
Are you someone who regularly posts about your life on Facebook, Instagram, or other platforms? You may want to pause your activity if you have a pending personal injury case. The defendant’s legal team may use anything you post against you, especially if it pertains to the accident or your injury.
Types of posts that could impact your legal strategy include:
- Publishing the details about your accident and those involved: Immediately posting pictures from a car accident or calling out the supermarket where you slipped and fell can be substantial evidence used against you.
- Giving information about your case: You should only discuss your claim with your attorney rather than making it public for social media audiences.
- Providing updates about your health and well-being: Even posting about making progress with your recovery can give insurers a reason to dispute your claim.
It’s not just posts on your personal feed that you have to monitor. Commenting on other posts can also affect your claim.
For example, say you’re undergoing physical therapy as part of your recovery. When the rehabilitation center makes a post highlighting one of their physical therapists, you write a comment saying, “You’re helping me with my back injury, and I feel so much better every day because of it.” The defendant in your case could see this and try to devalue the extent of your injury.
Photos May Dispute the Severity of Your Injury
What is so harmful about pictures on social media and personal injury claims? While sharing photos can be a great way to connect with others, it’s something that you should be wary of when you have an unresolved personal injury case.
Think about the many ways that someone could interpret your photos. A picture of you enjoying an outdoor hike shows that you lead an active lifestyle. A photo of you smiling at the beach with loved ones may give insight into how you like to spend your free time.
Now imagine how lawyers representing the defendant will view these post-injury photos. Evidence of you hiking despite claiming to have a serious injury may weaken your claim.
Perhaps you’re seeking emotional distress damages. You claim that you’re unable to enjoy common activities due to your injury. However, a beachside photo of you with friends and family where you’re smiling may negate this claim.
Your Friends’ Activity Also Comes Into Question
It’s not just your personal activity that you have to monitor. Issues regarding social media and personal injury claims could stem from others around you.
To limit the evidence in litigation used against you, you’re cautious about what you post and keep relatively quiet on social media. This may not be enough. If your friends publish photos or information online and tag your account, legal counsel may be able to view it.
Imagine you have an open car accident claim citing whiplash injuries. The defense might question the validity of your claim if one of your friends posts a recent video of you riding a roller coaster at an amusement park. Lawyers could argue that the ride may exacerbate your injuries and refuse to pay for subsequent medical costs.
How To Protect Your Claim Amid Social Media Activity
While being active on social media platforms could impact your case, there are ways to protect your claim. Be mindful of what you post and how the activity from those around you may affect your case. Below are some tips for navigating a personal injury claim in the age of social media.
Pause Your Online Activity
To avoid any unwanted consequences of social media and personal injury claims, consider taking a break from these platforms. Even an accidental slip-up could potentially jeopardize your claim and whether you receive any compensation. It’s wise to halt your activity until the case resolves.
This process could take months. You should consult your attorney about which types of posts may be acceptable as you await an outcome. Daily users may struggle to stop browsing these platforms altogether, so having a guide about what you can publish may be helpful.
Perhaps you’re an avid poster and worry that you may publish some potentially harmful information on your accounts. Consider deleting the apps from your phone to prevent you from using these platforms until your case resolves.
Adjust Your Privacy Settings
Maybe you want to keep using your accounts but decide you need an extra layer of caution. View your current privacy settings and make them more restrictive until your case reaches a resolution.
You may have a fully public account that allows anyone to view your posts or activity. Consider limiting your posts’ reach to only friends or followers.
Be mindful of any strangers who try to add you on social media. Someone could create a fake account to try to find information about you online. If the account is tied to an insurance representative or someone on the defendant’s legal team, they may uncover evidence to use against you.
Consult a Lawyer About Deleting Posts
“I have nothing to worry about when it comes to social media and personal injury claims. If there are any harmful posts or photos on my accounts, I can just delete them.”
Many injury victims adopt this mindset going into their case and immediately start removing certain posts. Depending on the circumstances, deleting activity from your account could be seen as an attempt to hide evidence. It can also be ineffective if the defense already has access to your account’s history and has documented the evidence.
Let your attorney know about any photos or online statements that you want to delete. They can evaluate the context and potential impact of your online activity. They may advise keeping this information visible as they build an argument supporting your claim.
Request That Loved Ones Stop Posting About You
Maybe you go out to lunch with a close friend to fill them in about your case and injury recovery. They publish a well-intentioned post about seeing you and meeting up at a certain restaurant. While this may not seem like a big deal, legal professionals could create a defense argument citing this information.
Your loved ones may not be aware of the implications of what they post. To protect your claim, let them know that you must be cautious with social media activity. Politely ask them to refrain from posting updates or photos about you.
Remind them that this request is only temporary. Once your case resolves, you and your loved ones may continue to publish content and converse on social media platforms.
The Possible Impact Social Media Has on Personal Injury Damages
When it comes to navigating social media and personal injury claims, keep your potential compensation in mind. You may seek both economic and non-economic damages after an accident to cover costs like:
- Medical expenses
- Property damage
- Transportation costs
- Lost wages
- Overall pain and suffering
While financial compensation isn’t a certain outcome in any case, you must be aware of how your online activity may affect your claim. Various social media posts, photos, or conversations could jeopardize the amount of damages you’re trying to pursue. What does this look like in practice?
Suppose you’re involved in a workplace accident and are expected to miss four weeks of work. Your injury claim includes these lost wages, but your online activity may throw a wrench in how much money you receive, if any. If, during your recovery period, you decide to start a new business venture and post a video promoting it, the defense could argue that you’re able to earn income despite your injury.
Say you were in a car accident. Along with compensation for your physical injuries, you claim emotional distress damages, citing major anxiety about traveling in vehicles after the crash. An insurer may not pay these damages if they find a recent photo of you with friends on a party bus celebrating a special occasion.
Comparative negligence also plays a key role in determining how much compensation a plaintiff may receive. Admitting fault in any way, even in a social media mishap, could make you partially liable for your injuries. Depending on your fault percentage, you may lose up to half of a settlement or be ineligible to receive compensation.
Discuss Your Legal Strategy With an Experienced Injury Attorney
When you mix social media and personal injury claims, the outcome may not be in your favor. Limiting your online presence and activity could minimize the defense’s personal injury evidence used against you.
Adjusting your online habits is just one part of enduring a personal injury case. Let the attorneys at Alpizar Law, LLC, guide you through the rest of the legal process. Contact us online or call (321) 676-2511 to schedule a free case evaluation.
