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Social Media and Personal Injury Litigation

HomeBlogPersonal InjurySocial Media and Personal Injury Litigation

Social Media and Personal Injury Litigation

February 11, 2013
By jhartle@lgslaw.net

In our new gadget-filled, technology-driven world, social media accounts, such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Instagram, etc., are becoming increasingly popular.  These sites are great ways to keep in contact with friends, family and colleagues, and offer a very unique way of keeping everyone up to date on what is going on in our lives, in an almost real-time fashion.  However, personal injury litigants and potential litigants should be aware that the information contained on these sites, including photographs, blogs, messages, etc., may become accessible to defense attorneys, insurance adjusters, and witnesses in legal cases, even if you do not intend them to be or consider them private.  Therefore, you should exercise some discretion in deciding what type of information that you post via these social media sites.

If you do participate in social media sites, it is probably in your best interest to never post any information or comment in any way concerning your claim or potential claim for personal injury, including photographs of your injuries or comments about your theory of what happened that caused your incident.  This includes instant messaging and email as well.  Of utmost importance, you should never post anything concerning a communication between you and your attorney, as this could potentially waive any privilege or attorney/client confidentiality about that communication.

If you have already posted photos, comments, messages, etc. about your pending claim or potential claim, you should NOT remove those posts from your social media site, even if you think it may harm your case, until you have consulted with your attorney.  This may seem illogical, but removing posts about your case could be treated as destroying potential evidence, and result in sanctions against you.

In this new age of social media, privacy rights have become less and less clear.  By considering these recommendations, and using a little common sense, we hope that you are able to protect your rights as much as possible.  If you have any questions or concerns about these issues, you should discuss them with your attorney or consult with an experienced attorney.

DISCLAIMER

This report contains general legal and other information that we prepared to be helpful to consumers.  It is NOT intended to be legal advice about your particular case or any other similar case, and you should NOT rely upon it in any manner.  In fact, because some of the laws referred to can change or be interpreted differently by judicial decisions, it is all the more reason why it should be considered general information only.

Furthermore, each case is uniquely different.  Past results do not guarantee future results, and results in one state or even one county may differ.  We do not win all of our cases.  In fact, no attorney or firm win all of their cases.  For ALL these reasons, we encourage you to consult with an experienced attorney or firm in your area.  There is no attorney-client relationship between the reader and Lafferty, Gallagher & Scott, LLC in the absence of a formal fee agreement signed by attorney and client.

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