Can Social Media Affect My Personal Injury Claim?

If you or somebody you love has been injured due to the negligent actions of another individual or business in California, you will likely be able to recover compensation for your losses. However, as tempting as it can be to post about an injury or a current claim on social media, this can actually harm your case. Here, we want to delve into how posting on various social media platforms can affect the outcome of your injury claim.

Posting to Social Media Seems Like an Obvious Thing to Do

We are in an age of social media. With the interconnectedness afforded to all of us through smartphones and other devices, we are always connected. It can seem like second nature to reach for your phone and click on a social media app to talk about what just happened to you, particularly if you were just involved in a traumatic incident such as a vehicle accident or another type of injury.

We have all seen the videos and posts from others – Facebook posts about an accident a person just sustained, Instagram photos of an injury incident, tweets about pain and suffering during the recovery process, and even TikTok videos from the scene of an accident or from a hospital bed.

Nearly all types of social media posts that individuals make about injuries they sustained contain commentary about what happened and their recovery process. Even though this may seem rather innocuous, the reality is that this type of posting can certainly harm a personal injury claim in California.

Insurance Carriers and Lawyers Will Look at Your Social Media

If you have sustained an injury caused by another party and to file an insurance claim or a personal injury lawsuit in civil court, you need to be ready to face insurance carriers and legal teams. What we mean by this is that you have to keep what you say guarded for quite a while, at least until the case is over with and you recover compensation.

You can be sure that the insurance carriers and the legal team for the at-fault party will scour the Internet looking for information about the incident. This will include looking at your social media as well as the social media posts made by your family members.

What could go wrong?

• Making contradictory statements. Individuals often make statements in the aftermath of an accident that contradict earlier statements they made about the same incident. Stories can inadvertently change over time, and this can be detrimental to an injury claim. You need to keep your story straight from the beginning and only share this with an insurance carrier or your attorney.
• Posting other activities. Individuals often post about other activities they are involved in after an accident occurs. Doing something like going to the beach, going to a sporting event, or taking a family vacation could indicate to an insurance carrier or a jury that you were not as injured as you said you were.
• Admitting fault. Individuals could accidentally admit fault for an injury, and this could derail a claim. Even though individuals in California can still recover compensation if they were partially at fault for an incident, this will reduce the amount of compensation they receive.
• Friends and family shares. Even if you are sure that your social media is all private, it does not always stay that way. Something as easy as a friend or family member sharing a post that you make, or copying your video or post to their own feed, could give insurance carriers and lawyers access to your information.

Contact us today to speak with an experienced Los Angeles personal injury lawyer.