The Impact Of Social Media On Personal Injury Cases In King County

Here is what is covered in this guide: 

• Reasons why insurance companies monitor your social media account during personal injury cases.
• How you can protect your case if you are active on social media. 
• How wearables like smartwatches can affect your personal injury claim. 

Why Do Insurance Companies Monitor A Claimant’s Social Media Account During Personal Injury Cases?

Social media has had a great impact on how we connect with our loved ones and has been used as a tool for freedom of speech. It’s the first place you run to when you want to share big news with the world, and it is easy to see why an insurance company would take an interest in your social media account during a personal injury case. 

It’s important to understand that social media is not private, it’s not secret, and it’s not privileged. Anything you put out there is kept and can be kept forever, and it can be subpoenaed from the companies. 

For insurance companies, social media is a treasure trove of information about what you do, who you are, who you associate with and about every aspect of your life. If you are active on social media, an insurance company can find out. 

Posting on social media after you have been in a collision can do all sorts of things to your claim. First of all, it can destroy your claim because people very rarely post on social media about how horrible they are doing. They always post about how great life is.

For example, let’s say you were in a collision, but the day you try to ride your bike, someone tags you and says, “Hey, it was great seeing you out on your bike.” I had one case in particular where we were in the middle of a deposition, and the client claimed that his knee was injured because of the collision. 

The defense attorney threw down a screenshot of his social media page, showing him sprawled out in the snow, and it was dated the next day after the collision with the caption, “Dude, that was a gnarly crash. How’s your knee?” That undid his claim because he looked like a liar. 

Everything you post on social media can be used to undo your case, prove you were not injured, and essentially show you as somebody who is a liar. Insurance companies make lots and lots of money defending claims because they successfully make people look like they are lying because their social media pages don’t reflect the reality of the situation.

What Steps Should I Take To Protect My Personal Injury Case If I’m Active On Social Media?

If you’re involved in a personal injury case, the first thing you need to do is stop posting. Just stop. Not posting cannot be emphasized enough. You should not post about your injuries and should not post during the time that your claim is pending. You should know that anything you post on social media can and will be used against you in a court of law. 

Even if you go out and somebody tags you in a post on your Facebook or Instagram account, that can be used against you to prove that you were not injured in the collision or that by this time, your injuries had recovered, don’t post. 

Also, make sure your social media is not public because if it’s public, then there’s absolutely no barrier between you and whatever investigator the insurance company hires to investigate you can find on your social media.

Attorney Matthew Hale is a seasoned lawyer based in King County, Washington, who has helped countless clients just like you navigate the intricacies of personal injury law. He has extensive legal experience and is prepared to assist you with negotiating and litigating accident claims and help you get the compensation you deserve for your personal injury.

Still have questions? Ready to get started? Contact M. R. HALE LAW today to schedule an initial consultation.

How Can Wearable Devices (Like Fitbits Or Apple Watches) Affect My Personal Injury Claim?

It’s not just social media that can make or break your case, but anything connected to the Internet of Things (IoT), like smartwatches. They transmit data to the cloud, which includes your activity and location, and this data can be used to deny your claim.

Your personal electronic devices are really intelligence-gathering devices about you. Even your iPhone has a health feature that keeps track of how many steps you take during the day. Fitbits track your heart rate; they track when you’re sleeping and when you’re awake. The same is true with Apple Watches. 

They can almost track blood pressure and other vital statistics about yourself. All that information gets stored in a database. So, if you’re claiming to be injured, but then suddenly your Fitbit shows you working out at certain times of the day, that’s not consistent with a personal injury claim.

I have had cases where the insurance defense attorney finds out that the client has a Fitbit and then hires expensive, high-end tech people to get ahold of that Fitbit, download the information, and then come up with some sort of analysis of it to prove that the client really was not injured. 

If they were injured, they would not have so many steps. Their heart rate would not be doing what it’s doing or showing continuing exercise. 

So, the Apple Watches, iPhones, Google phones, all these things gather information about you and store it in a database. That information, whether or not it’s accurate, can be used against you to harm or undo your case entirely.

Can You Share An Example Where Social Media Played A Role In A Personal Injury Case You Handled?

I was defending a deposition of a client whose hand was injured in an automobile collision. She was someone who was active and in good physical shape. She liked to hang out with her friends and travel a lot. She wore a Fitbit to track her fitness level, workouts, and sleep. 

She was active on Facebook and posted a lot. Her car was smashed from behind, and the insurance company for the other driver had hired a well-known aggressive defense firm to go after her. In discovery, they were able to get a copy of her Facebook account. It’s almost impossible to prevent this from happening.

Her account was filled with photos and videos. She was drinking with friends, holding cocktail glasses in her injured hand. There were photos of her carrying things in that hand and videos of her participating in physical activities and challenges. 

She posted some of the photos on Facebook, others she was tagged in, and she posted videos of herself participating in a push-up challenge. The defense seized on this, and they seized on the fact she wore a Fitbit, and they wanted that data. It was a fight! 

They wanted the data as to when she was sleeping, exercising, or anything they could find. The Fitbit was a treasure trove of information. They were willing to hire an expensive forensic expert to get the information to defeat her claim, and they used all of the social media photographs and everything else to show that her hand wasn’t injured because, well, she could hold a wine glass with it.

I have had many cases that start out great, and by the time they are done with the social media discovery, you have to settle the case short because the evidence is such that it basically undoes their claim. Social media and all of these personal intelligence-gathering devices can be used against you to really destroy the narrative of your life; the smartest thing you can do is simply stop posting after your accident and cease using wearable devices.

Still Have Questions? Ready To Get Started?

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