How Social Media Can Hurt Your Bradenton Personal Injury Case
After a Bradenton car crash or other type of accident, it is common to let friends and family know via social media. While this can provide comfort during a difficult time, it can also give insurers information they can use to deny or dispute your injury claim.
Our experienced Bradenton personal injury lawyer explains how insurers use social media activity and ways to protect your injury claim.
How Insurance Companies Use Your Social Media Against You
When slips and falls, dog bites, car accidents, and other crashes happen in Manatee County, the at-fault party may have insurance to cover your losses. However, insurance adjusters look for any reason to deny or dispute claims. Social media gives them a direct window into your daily activities.
The Pew Research Center reports that nearly 70 percent of Americans use social media regularly. Insurers know this, and it’s one of the first places they look for evidence. Common ways they can use social media posts against you:
- Smiling pictures from family gatherings can be used to dispute the severity of your injuries.
- Check-ins at restaurants, events, or gyms suggest a level of activity that contradicts your reported limitations.
- Comments about the accident can be used to dispute your version of events.
- Posts by friends or family tagging you in activities create the same problems as your own posts.
Even posts from before the accident can be used as evidence against you.
Personal Injuries in Bradenton? What To Do (and Not Do) Online
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement reports that digital evidence often plays a key role in both civil and criminal cases. The safest approach after suffering personal injuries in Bradenton is to refrain from social media until after your claim is resolved. If that’s not realistic, follow these guidelines to reduce your risk:
- Do not post anything about the accident, your injuries, your medical treatment, or your case.
- Avoid checking in to locations or sharing photos that show physical activity.
- Ask your friends and family not to tag you in posts or photos while your claim is active.
- Do not accept new friend or follower requests from people you do not know personally.
- Review and tighten your privacy settings.
- Assume that anything you post, even in a private message, could eventually be seen by the other side.
Deleting existing posts after an accident can also backfire. Courts may treat this as destruction of evidence, which can create serious legal problems.
Contact Our Experienced Bradenton Personal Injury Lawyer Today
What you do online after an accident can be just as consequential as what you do in the doctor’s office or at the scene of the crash. Protecting your claim means being careful on every front.
At the Lavely Law Firm, we guide victims throughout Manatee County through every stage of the claims process, helping them avoid the mistakes that insurers count on. Contact our experienced Bradenton personal injury lawyer today to schedule a consultation and get the trusted legal guidance you need.
Sources:
pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/social-media/
fdle.state.fl.us/forensics/disciplines/digital-evidence
