Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and other popular social sites have long established themselves as a medium to keep in touch with friends and family regarding your life’s status. However, they can also be a sneaky tool used by insurance companies to undermine your legal claim.
More and more courts are allowing posts made on Facebook and Twitter to be considered ‘discoverable’. Being ‘discoverable’ means that defense attorneys and insurance companies may be allowed access to anything you post online to possibly use at trial. This can include information you posted to social media sites regardless if your content was initially marked ‘private’ at the time of posting.
An experienced attorney will tell you that the details of your legal claim should only be discussed between you and your attorney. This is because the potential for limiting your recovery by posting status updates or photos of yourself on social media websites is high.
A common but scary example is easy to demonstrate:
You take a photo of yourself a month after your car accident. In the photo you are smiling but there are no signs of bruises, casts, or other injuries. An aggressive defense attorney or insurance company may use this photo and present it to a jury as circumstantial proof that you were not as injured as you claim.
Although this example may seem unfair, especially if the photo is only of your face and your injuries are to your lower body, more and more courts are allowing the content you post on websites to be used during trial. An experienced and modern attorney will help explain what you should and should not have available on these social media websites.