You'll Want to Reconsider Using Social Media After a Car Accident

If you’ve ever been in a car accident, you would know that accidents can be extremely traumatic and lead to a lot of frustration especially when it comes to dealing with insurance companies. The main goal of the other party’s insurance company is to pay as little as possible to settle a claim.

So how is this related to social media? Ever since its debut, social media has been a crucial part of our lives. Chronicling events, our memories, feelings, and friendships on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter have become a way of life. It transformed the way in which we communicate and made our lives a lot more transparent and open to the public eye.

That is why, when it comes to legal issues such as personal injury and lawsuits, your public profile can prove to be quite troublesome. If you have filed such a claim consult with your car accident lawyer before posting anything on social media that could land you in trouble. Insurance agents, while investigating your car accident case, will try various tactics. One of their common tactics is to monitor your social media accounts to gain evidence to prove that your injuries were not as grave as you claimed them to be. They might even send you fake friend requests to try and obtain more information about your life.

Requesting for social media profiles or handles are subject to general rules applicable to discovery. The information should be furnished if it’s reasonable in time as well as relevant to the case. Obtaining access to your Facebook account is not that difficult and quite dangerous because it does not pose much of an additional expense for the insurance company.

For the insurance companies, they are getting massive amounts of personal information absolutely free. And this information can be used against you in court as evidence. There are various things that they could use from your profile that could limit or reject your personal injury claim.

Posts that seem to diminish your injury

There are people who falsely claim injury and then post a picture or video of themselves playing sports or going for a run. But even those with genuine injuries may come under the radar. Insurance agents can end up using even the most mundane posts you considered to be normal, against you. Pictures, videos or simply a statement about how your day was or how you are feeling may be taken out of context and used as proof against you to show that you are demanding more than you are eligible for.

Content against emotional impact

The accident might have left a traumatic impact on you. You may still be trying to move past it and get back into normalcy. But even then, when you post pictures, videos or statements on social media in an attempt to normalize your life again, they can be taken out of context and used to prove that the accident was not that severe.

A harmless photo of you spending a day relaxing or attending an event or even smiling can be used as “proof” by some insurance companies to present before a judge or jury.

And it is not just your account that you need to be wary of. You may even show up on your friend’s social media accounts frequently which might again hinder your case. The insurance company will scour all social media accounts including your friends to come up with some material that can be used against you.

It might seem like the only option is to go off social media altogether and delete your accounts. But there is no need for such drastic steps. This might again be a step backward when the lawyer accuses you of trying to hide or destroy evidence.

The best option is to simply reduce your social media usage at least until the personal injury case has been resolved. You could also request your friends and family not post anything about you during that period as well. Even though social media is an integral part of our lives nowadays, there are some situations where it is best to limit your social media use.

Talk to a personal injury attorney by reaching out to The Law Offices of Alvin f. de Levie & Associates at 844-777-2529 to know more about how to keep your social media posts controversy-free.