Social media provides an outlet for venting frustrations and sharing updates about your latest experiences. While there is nothing wrong with wanting to keep your friends and followers up-to-date on your progress recovering from an accident, posting to social media could cause problems for your case.
Even private posts on social media are vulnerable to being seen by people that you might not expect. Accepting a friend request from someone who looks vaguely familiar after a car accident could expose your posts to the at-fault driver, in your case or their legal team. Whether your profile is open to the public or limited to a select few followers, the truth is that it is best to avoid making announcements about your accident for the following reasons.
Undermining the Severity of Personal Injuries
Car accident injuries can range from obvious fractures and bruises to less visible spinal issues that cause pain and suffering with even the smallest movements. After your car accident, it’s important to seek medical attention that can aid in proving your injuries during a personal injury case. You’ll want to use your medical diagnosis along with testing and imaging results that help to prove your injury claims.
While having documented proof from healthcare professionals is beneficial, you could cause others to doubt your claims of pain and suffering if social media shows otherwise. For instance, an innocent picture you post of smiling at a family member’s birthday party might make it look like you aren’t in severe pain. Or, a photo of your physical therapy session at a gym could be mistaken for you doing a full workout like you might’ve done before you were injured.
During personal injury cases, it is common for the at-fault party’s legal team to do everything they can to cast doubt on what someone claims ruins their quality of life. You might know that your smile was forced for that photo, but the picture tells a different story to people who don’t live inside your body.
Creating Admissions of Fault
Personal injury lawyers frequently have to help people overcome harm they did to their car accident case within the first few minutes by saying they were sorry. Ideally, it is important to avoid making any statements that could seem like an admission of guilt, which is hard for people who tend to default to apologies.
Even if you avoided saying anything damaging at the scene, you’re still not in the clear. Posting online might make it seem like you participated in events or situations that contributed to the accident. For instance, posting about your friend’s wedding the day of your accident could raise questions about whether or not you had been drinking.
Posting videos of yourself on social media while you are in the vehicle might make it look like you engage in distracted driving. Or, you might have an old post that displays you engaging in high-risk behaviors such as speeding or not wearing a seatbelt. While you might know that these videos don’t display the whole truth about the situation, someone could use them against you.
Keep in mind that any post about car accidents could be used negatively. For example, you might have a good reason to post anti-drunk driving messages or to rant against texting and driving. But, the other party’s legal defense could argue that this is you trying to manage your guilt for engaging in unsafe behaviors. For now, don’t apologize for anything that happened during the accident or even make a statement about how you were harmed. Both of these types of posts could come back to haunt you.
Complicating Cases With Contradictory Information
Serious car accident cases often involve going over the finest details carefully. The time, date and road conditions during the accident are essential for helping to demonstrate fault. If you accidentally post that you were in the accident in the morning, then it could create confusion about a collision that occurred at night due to faulty headlights on the other party’s vehicle.
Mentioning that you are going on vacation to a ski resort might make it seem like you are healthy enough to go skiing, when you may know that you are really just baking cookies in a cabin while everyone in your family goes out to the slopes. Although you may want to put on a brave face and tell everyone you are doing great, this too could be misconstrued as you having a speedy recovery when the opposite is true.
Needing to disprove contradictory information wastes time when every moment counts for helping you receive the compensation you need for a healthy recovery. Avoiding damage to your case is easier than needing to unwind a complicated series of social media posts.
Experiencing an accident doesn’t mean you have to stop enjoying using social media. Nor should you have to block all of the viewers from your feed. Instead, it’s best to take a cautious approach to your postings and updates. If your profile is currently public, then setting it to private could prevent unauthorized people from viewing your content. But, don’t consider this to be a foolproof move. You’ll also want to avoid accepting new friend requests, especially from people you don’t know.
Then, use caution with the posts you make to avoid putting anything online that could be misconstrued and jeopardize your case. When in doubt, consult with an injury law firm like Laffey Bucci D’Andrea Reich & Ryan to identify potentially damaging post topics. Since even posting about a recent birthday event could cause confusion, it’s usually best to limit or opt out of posting until the car accident case is over.
As you develop your social media plan, remember to reach out to your loved ones. Asking your family and friends to avoid posting about the accident can also help to prevent secondary sources from sharing potentially conflicting information. While it may be hard not to post online about what you are going through, remember that you can still talk to your friends, family and attorneys through in-person meetings and phone calls that won’t get tracked by people who don’t have your best intentions in mind.
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