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The Impact of Social Media On Lawsuits

Kevin Gardner1416 14-Mar-2019

The Impact of Social Media On Lawsuits

Everything posted on social media is publicly available and even the most meaningful comments on complaints of personal injury may be used in defense against plaintiffs. For this reason, we have created the following social media guidelines for plaintiffs of personal injury currently involved in litigation.

Don't use your social network to deal with the case. Instead, talk to personal accident lawyers and help avoid major obstacles. Check out reviews and talk to some attorneys before choosing the one who is the most skilled and suited to your case.


Steps You Should Take to Deal with Your Personal Lawsuit  

If you are planning a personal injury lawsuit, it is best to be cautious about social media use.

Many people think that posting to social media is okay, as long as you carefully set privacy settings. Unfortunately, this does not apply to car accidents and subsequent personal injury claims. Depending on your privacy settings, insurers can easily track your actions and change seemingly innocuous updates to potentially harmful mistakes. The defense will use whatever evidence they can find trying to exploit their interests. Your social media posts, such as photos, videos, comments, captions and text, can be used as evidence. Even if your photos and comments are innocent, everything you post may be used against you.

Sometimes social network users accidentally publish something that would hurt them later. This is especially true of victims who are using social networks. 

Social media itself does not harm your claims of personal injury. However, anyone can see what you are posting if your postings are public. But if you think that only friends and family are the only people who can access your social feed, you are wrong. Even if tweets are protected and Facebook security settings are maximized, "stakeholders" can access these posts.

The lesson to learn here is that it is best to completely avoid social media during a personal injury claim. At the very least you need to greatly limit your social media presence. Also, make sure the privacy settings are as strict as possible. 

If you have already posted something that may impact your case on social media, please consider contacting an experienced personal injury lawyer who has handled a similar case who knows how social media evidence affects injury claims. Your lawyer should be able to review your social media content and advise you on your best ways of your future. Personal injury claims are complicated. You need a personal injury attorney who has a wealth of knowledge and resources and knows how to protect your interests. Your lawyer should actively act as a legal representative by educating and preparing you for the case.

Also, in a slanderous dispute, lawyers periodically issue look for evidence of social media for defamed persons. These are clear examples of how social media can play a role in litigation. Lawyers do not always know what they are seeking when they are involved in finding publicly available electronic evidence. Talk to your lawyer about how you should limit your social media use.


The Implications of Social Media

Social networks can endanger your case. After the car accident and other traumatic events, you should limit your activity on social networks. Sometimes it only takes one kind of comment, twitter or photo that may destroy your claim and eliminate the opportunity for fair reimbursement.

It is a good idea to monitor your social media account if you recently got injured or in the near future. Naturally, when experiencing serious life events, especially accidents and injuries, people often want to share this experience on social media. But if you want to share your pain through social media, you should think twice before doing it.

If the accident has just occurred, your first instinct may be to Tweet about it, post a picture on Instagram, or streaming your reaction on Facebook. You want my friends and family members to know. But since social media is such a public forum, your post will inform the world about your personal injury claims. In the long run, this is very bad for you. In fact, posting to social media after a crash may prevent you from seeking compensation for your injury.


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