Social Media And Your Personal Injury Claim

Personal injury attorneys often warn their clients not to discuss their case with anyone, this includes broadcasting the status of your suit to all of your friends and family online. Your online community isn't the only one that may be interested in your status updates, so are defense attorneys and insurance companies.

So you've been in an accident. Even though you are injured, you send out a casual status update to tell your friends that you're doing fine and will be back to normal in no time. Even though your comment was only one of reassurance, the defense can use this comment to make it seem like your injuries were only minor.

Videos and photos that you post online, even old, seemingly innocent ones, can be used against you as well. Your friends may even be called as witnesses about the state of your health. Your safest option is to cancel all social media accounts until after the conclusion of your case.

Defense attorneys and insurance companies will attempt to gather information that will benefit their case. If you haven't deactivated your social media accounts, here are a few precautions you should take if you have been involved in an accident:

• Never grant permission to anyone to look through your social media accounts.
• Remove all videos, photos, and status updates that could hurt your case.
• Do not accept any friend requests from people you do not personally know. 
• Be sure to activate your privacy settings. In spite of this, there are ways to gather information from your social media accounts, but you can make it more difficult for them.
• Never respond to messages from people you do not know. 

You may be entitled to compensation if you have been injured due to the negligence of another party. Contact the Missouri Personal Injury Attorneys of The Glassman Law Firm at 314.446.6000 to go over your legal rights and options.