Social media has become totally ingrained in everyday life. Often not a day will go by without checking Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or some other social media platform. It can be a great way to stay in touch with friends and family as well as stay up to date on what is going on in the world and the lives of others. Social media, however, can have a variety of potential downsides. In fact, social media use can have devastating consequences on a personal injury case.
Problems Social Media Use Can Create for Your Personal Injury Case
Unfortunately, social media use has become so commonplace that people have stopped considering the consequences of its use. This can be particularly problematic should you have a pending personal injury case. The impacts of social media use on your personal injury claim can be far-reaching well beyond what you may have ever considered. This is due in large part to people underestimating the extent to which an insurance company will go to avoid paying out on a claim or undermining the value of a claim. Insurance companies will use every tool, every resource, every loophole available to try and deny or devalue your claim. Social media has provided a variety of resources for them to accomplish this.
After an accident, you may go on social media to talk about what happened. You may go on social media to post that you are doing okay. Statements included in these posts can be later used against you. Seemingly innocent statements can be used to place blame on you for causing the accident. Saying you are “okay” could provide a basis for the insurance company to assert you were not injured in the accident.
Even after the accident has been cleared and you are well into the personal injury claim process to seek compensation for your injuries and related losses, there are ways that the insurance company can use social media use against you. Posting pictures about activities and outings you go on can also be used to assert you are not really hurt. While life goes on and we cannot let our injuries bring our lives to a standstill, evidence that you are still engaging in certain activities and acting like life has not changed at all can be used to support the assertion that you are not too badly injured or your claim for things like pain and suffering is not legitimate.
These are all reasons why, when you have a personal injury case pending, you should seriously consider halting all social media use. Better safe than sorry is the way to go. If this is something you are not willing to do, there are certain precautions you should at least be prepared to take. For instance, increase your security settings to the strongest possible extent so that only your friends can see your posts. Should you receive friend requests from someone you do not know, decline the invitation.
Personal Injury Attorneys
At SoCal Injury Lawyers, we are committed to always protecting the best interests of our clients. We stand up to big insurance companies and work tirelessly to avoid falling into any of the various traps they set for injury victims in order to undermine or deny claims. Contact us today.