social media and personal injury de lachica law firm

If you are a parent, you have likely schooled your children on the dangers of social media. But what about you? Do you know why you need to be careful on social media? We’ll give you some tips.

According to recent statistical research, Facebook alone has more than 1.79 billion monthly active users.  Instagram, the picture sharing app, has about 500 million people posting on a monthly basis.  Twitter follows with approximately 313 million active users.  We’d say there’s a good chance that many people are using some type of social media and may not realize how they could put themselves in jeopardy. This is especially the case if a person is in the middle of a personal injury lawsuit.

Social Media Posts Can Be Dangerous

Let’s start with the story of Joan Donnelly. Her car was struck from the rear and Joan injured her neck. The doctor diagnosed Joan with a whiplash injury. She was instructed to wear a neck brace and refrain from doing any type of strenuous activity.

Joan is a gym rat and thought nothing of it when her friends photographed her lifting weights. After all, they were admiring her form and that made Joan proud. When the pictures were posted to social media, Joan was tagged in them. Although Joan was in pain, the photographs seemed to suggest otherwise. The images somehow made their way to the insurance adjuster handling Joan’s claim. Obviously, it wasn’t a good situation.

The lesson here is that pictures can tell a story. And it’s not always the one that will help a lawsuit. There are other dangers involving social media, including:

  • Posting something that hurts someone else’s reputation could result in a libel suit
  • Revealing any personal information on social media helps the insurance company to investigate you and your personal injury claim
  • Discussing your case at all could inadvertently show discrepancies in your story

Obviously, these are just a sampling of the dangers of social media. It’s a good idea to place restrictions on your social media account. Start by ensuring you have set up secure privacy settings. Be cautious to only accept “friends” whom you know in real life. Do not allow yourself to automatically be tagged in pictures without your permission. Make sure that anything you say on social media can’t come back to haunt you. This includes speaking badly of someone when you are outraged. And the most obvious, if you are in the middle of a lawsuit or insurance claim, never post anything about your case or your injuries. Even with these restrictions in place, it can still come back to haunt you.

Contact Us

It is important to retain experienced legal counsel for any type of personal injury claim.  But, what if someone has written something about you that has damaged your reputation?  At de Lachica Law Firm, PLLC, we can assist in either situation.  Contact us to discuss your case.

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