Social Media and Personal Injury Cases: How Your Online Presence Can Affect Your Claim

When you think about the factors that will affect the compensation you receive in a personal injury case, you’re probably considering things like how serious your injuries were and whether you were partly to blame. You probably aren’t thinking about the role your TikTok or Instagram might affect your claim. But, what you say and share on social media can have a significant impact on your case. That’s true even if your account is private or friends-only.

The best source of information about how to handle your socials after an injury will be your personal injury attorney. This post provides some general information to help you understand the risks and how to avoid them until you have a chance to meet with your injury lawyer and get more personalized information.

Know the Risks of Posting on Social Media

From the moment of your accident, it’s important to keep in mind that everything you post may be scrutinized by the responsible party’s insurance carrier and their attorneys to try to weaken your case. It’s easy to overlook the risks and mistakenly think you aren’t posting anything that could hurt you.

Social Media Hazard # 1: Talking about Your Accident and Injuries

If you’re like most humans, you’re rarely going to tell a story exactly the same every time. You might include different details depending on who you’re talking to, what they already know about the situation, and even how much time you want to invest. Sometimes you forget a detail, or are just focused on one aspect of what happened to you in a given moment. Maybe you don’t want your grandma, who you’re friends with on Facebook, to know how much pain you’re in.

When you’re “talking” on social media, the end result of those natural changes in the presentation can be lined up against one another to create the impression that you’re changing your story, or that your memory isn’t reliable.

Other perfectly normal expressions of your feelings about the accident can also harm your case. For example, if you were driving your mother’s car at the time of the accident and the car was totaled or seriously damaged, you might feel guilty about that even though the accident wasn’t your fault. But if you post that you feel awful about wrecking your mom’s car, the insurance company could argue that your comment was an admission that the accident was your fault.

Social Media Hazard # 2: Sharing Content that Can Be Taken Out of Context

You may think that if you’re honest in social media and you’re planning to be honest in court, there’s no risk in posting as usual. But insurance companies aren’t looking to figure out what’s really going on–they’re looking for evidence that can be used against you. Here are a few examples of innocent postings that can come back to haunt you:

• You participate in the bridal party dance at your sister’s wedding—it’s the only dance you participate in all night. You’re in pain and you’re probably going to be wiped out the whole next day. But it’s your sister’s wedding, so you push through. Someone takes a picture and sends it to you and you share it on Instagram. Months down the road, the insurance company’s lawyer may be showing you that picture during a deposition or in court, demanding “Isn’t this during the time you claim you required a walker to walk?” Of course, you can explain. But, that doesn’t fully erase the impact, and the more you have to explain, the less credible you sound.
• You check in or are geo-tagged at your gym, kickboxing class, water park or any number of other places you would generally go for physical activities that your injuries don’t allow for. Again, you can explain–maybe you’re watching a friend’s class or waiting for a friend who works at the gym to have a quiet dinner at the restaurant next door or you went to try to put your gym membership on hold because of your injuries. But it’s much better if you don’t have to.

Social Media Hazard # 3: Positivity (Toxic or Otherwise)

We hear a lot about “toxic positivity” in social media. Whether you consider it toxic or not, numerous studies verify that most people try to put a positive spin on things on social media. You can probably already see how this approach to posting can go seriously wrong if you’ve been in an accident.

You may have an ingrained habit of captioning your photos with lines like “It’s a perfect day!” or hashtagging your posts “#feelinginvincible”. Maybe posting positively helps you feel positive. Maybe you just want to be inspirational. But, you can probably see how those types of comments may get in the way of a jury understanding how your quality of life was affected by your injuries.

Talk to a Personal Injury Lawyer as Soon as Possible

The examples above are just a sampling of the ways seemingly normal social media posts could have a negative impact on your personal injury case. Many types of otherwise normal activities, photos, videos, and posts may become weapons in the hands of the responsible party’s insurance company and their lawyers. And, social media isn’t the only danger zone. Even live conversations can be used against you in court–even when the person called to testify is on your side.

The best way to protect yourself and your right to fair compensation for your injuries is to talk to a local injury attorney right away, before you have the opportunity to make mistakes that can hurt your case.

At Harrell & Harrell, we’ve been helping Florida injury victims for decades. We can guide you through the process of pursuing fair compensation for your injuries, starting with advising you on how to protect your claim while we investigate, negotiate, and prepare your case for trial. To learn more about how we can help, call 904-251-1111 right now, or fill out our contact form.