A woman was involved in a bad car accident a month ago. She sustained substantial injuries and is undergoing physical therapy to help her cope and heal. She recently consulted a lawyer about her case. She learned about the amounts of damages that she could get by filing a civil claim.
She posted on Facebook about her conversation. She got several likes and encouraging comments from her friends and followers. Did she actually hurt her case by posting on social media?
The answer is she may have since she may have inadvertently jeopardized the outcome of her civil case.
Why Can social media Hurt Your Case?
If someone is hurt in an accident, the other parties involved will look that person up online. One of the online sources that they will look at is social media platforms. They will figure that they can glean extra inside information from your posts that they could not find anywhere else.
Some of the things that they will look for are if the defense has a criminal background and if the defense has a history of filing lawsuits. They will also look for information from the plaintiff. For example, they will see if the plaintiff has filed for benefits every week when the person put up pictures showing an active life on various social media platforms.
They will also look to see if the plaintiff has made derogatory comments about the defendant on social media platforms. They will also look to see if the plaintiff is lying on social media or has shared strategies that he or she is forming with his or her personal injury lawyer in Sherwood Park on social media platforms. Therefore, you should be careful when posting about your personal injury case or claim on social media platforms. You should exercise caution and try to avoid posting on social media as much as possible.
Best Practices for Social Media Use
You need to be careful when posting on social media platforms. Remember that whatever you share is fair game for anyone to share anywhere indefinitely. Just remember that it can be easy for anyone to misinterpret or take whatever you post on social media out of context and use that against you either in or out of court.
Thus, your lawyer would advice that if you have been in an accident, don’t post pictures of your injuries and the accident sit on social media. It is good to take pictures but keep them offline and private. Only give it to your lawyer as it might be misused by the defendant’s legal team, showing it as minor injury even if it it turned into a major injury a few days later.