Social Media and Personal Injury cases simply don’t mix. As caring New York, Long Island Personal Injury Attorneys who only want the very best for our clients, we want you to know why.
Say you’re in the middle of a personal injury case. You’ve been injured by another and you cannot work, you need help to get up and walk around, you’re in perpetual agony and a financial crisis, all at the fault of another. So, you’ve hired an experienced personal injury attorney to oversee your case and protect your right to full compensation. They may have stellar ratings and reviews, you may feel confident that they’ll do all they can to get you the financial compensation you deserve, but they cannot do that if anything on Social Media, including private conversations, casts doubt on liability or the severity of your injuries.
Your Facebook is a fantastic source for a defendant’s lawyer or insurance company to gather information that may undermine your claim. Even if you know how to block access on your Social Media sites (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ etc.), lawyers and insurance companies can still hack in and try and use any information that goes against your claim as leverage to satisfy their own ends. Atop that, judges can force you to give up your passwords if the defendant’s lawyer(s) has a “good faith” basis to look it.
What Can Be Used Against You?
Even tracking applications, such as FourSquare, can be used against you in your personal injury case. If you check into a hotel, you may be asked in a court of law what you did at that hotel, and you cannot lie. Any of this can hurt your case.
So, remember to use caution when posting on the internet if you’re in the middle of a personal injury case. Remember, anything you post may stay there permanently, even if you delete it. It’s a good idea to change your privacy settings from public to private, but you should play it safe and not post anything at all until the case is resolved. Lawyers and insurance companies can use your posts and manipulate their meaning, confusing you to the point where you could inadvertently hurt your claim. So, what can you do in terms of being cautious?
It’s best you play it safe in regards to your Social Media posting in a personal injury case. Hopefully, you’ll never have to endure this type of tragedy. But, in case you do, Palermo Tuohy Bruno wants you to know how to play it completely safe.