Should You Post on Social Media After an Accident?
If you are involved in an accident and subsequent personal injury claim, what you post on social media can impact your case, which is why you should not post about:
- The car wreck
- Your injuries, treatment plan, or any other medical information
- Regrets (concerning the accident)
- “Check-ins” (i.e. information about where you are or what activities you are doing)
- The case itself
After an automobile collision, we ask all of our clients to stay away from posting anything accident-related on social media. Here’s why: your social media accounts are not private. Even if you have privacy settings on your social media accounts, anything you post goes out into the public domain and is, therefore, discoverable by the insurance companies.
Insurance companies will use any information available to them to lower the value of your claim. If you post all over social media about your injury claim, there may be other information in your social media posts that could help them keep money from you.
Let’s say that you were injured in an automobile collision on a Friday afternoon. You then post on Facebook and Instagram about the accident, including several pictures and sharing that your neck and back hurt. The following weekend, you attend a friend’s wedding and join in the festivities by dancing like MC Hammer in the good olé days. (Side note: If you are too young to know who MC Hammer is, please go to YouTube, and you will understand exactly what I’m talking about.) However, people with neck and back injuries cannot move like that, or if they do, they will not be able to walk tomorrow.
The insurance company (and their legal team) can obtain photos and videos from the wedding (likely also posted on social media) and share them with the judge and jury. They may question how severe your injuries are if you posted one week that you were in pain and posted the next week that you were “killing it” on the dance floor.
A young lady once said to one of our attorneys, “But social media is my life.” We’re not asking you to cut social media out of your life—just to be mindful of what you post. Remember: you can be on social media, but you can’t post about the accident or your injuries.
Social Media Can Hurt Your Personal Injury Case
Attorneys learn to hate surprises, especially when it involves being blindsided in court. When it comes to protecting our clients in court, we want to be prepared and don’t want pictures or videos to surface that show your client in a compromising position, especially if your client created or posted the evidence.
At The Dellutri Law Group, PA, we want to give our clients every advantage possible as we fight for fair compensation. So, as a general principle, we intentionally ask our clients to keep the details of their cases, the strategies we set forth, and any other case details private by not sharing them on social media. While it may seem old-fashioned or overly cautious, there are still some things that are better off not being posted online.
If you or a loved one was injured in an automobile wreck, please contact us immediately. The sooner you contact our team the sooner we can get to work. To learn more about how we can help you and schedule a case consultation, call our firm at (800) 391-4337 or complete this online form.
