How Can Social Media Affect Your Personal Injury Case

In this video, attorney Ted Spaulding reviews the impact that social media posting on sites like Facebook can have on your personal injury case resolution. 

How can social media affect your personal injury case? Watch this video to find out.

Hi, I’m Ted Spaulding. I’m an Atlanta personal injury trial lawyer and founder here at Spaulding Injury Law.

So this is a hot topic in the personal industry. It’s one that comes up often now. We get it all the time in discovery, asking for our clients’ social media handles, asking for access to social media. If it has been made private, why? Well, they’re looking for any sort of information that they can, in my opinion, twist and use to say, “You’re not as injured as you say you are.”

So obviously the real big problems would be if you are exaggerating your injuries, right? That’s not what the system’s supposed to be about. So if you are testifying that you are so injured, you can’t do things like mow the lawn or go on family vacations or walk without pain, but then, on social media, here’s pictures of you skiing with your family in Colorado, here’s pictures of you doing some sort of project around the house or comments about working out or things like that that are inconsistent with what you are talking about with regard to your injuries and how it affects you and the limitations that you’re having. So those are the things that they’re looking for, again, to perpetuate that notion ultimately to a jury that, “Hey, this is one of those plaintiffs that we hear about in the media that is faking injuries and things of that nature, because look at all these social media posts that are inconsistent with what he or she is telling the doctors, is telling you are her injuries and limitations.” So that’s what they’re looking for.

What I tell folks is to be very careful with social media once you have a personal injury. You don’t want to talk about the incident on social media. Things can be twisted that you say. You don’t want to talk about your condition because if you’re having a good day and you truly are injured but you post something about, “Hey, feeling great today,” that sort of thing, that’s going to be twisted by a defense lawyer. And again, understandably so, to a certain extent because they’re going to say, “Wait a minute, this says you’re feeling better.” Well, it may have been that day but now, you got to explain that away. So just don’t do it. I tell folks, unless it is your livelihood, stay off of social media after a personal injury incident until your case is resolved. You don’t want to give them anything that you’ve got to explain away, even if it is benign.

So that’s how social media can affect your personal injury case. Be careful. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to me. If you have a potential claim that you would like to discuss with me, I’d be happy to talk to you. You can comment to this video below. You can go to our website, spauldinginjurylaw.com. We have a contact form there. Or you can give me a phone call, two phone numbers for you: 770-744-0 or 470-695-9950. Thanks so much for watching this video.