Why You Should Stay Off of Social Media if You Have a Personal Injury Case
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decades combined experience.
You may not know it, but when you enter into a personal injury case you are inviting your attorney to create a narrative on your behalf. The narrative is generally a simple one: someone was negligent, you were hurt as a result of that negligence, and that negligence caused real harm that has a financial consequence.
As a result of that financial consequence, you should be compensated.
What you don’t know is that the insurance company who you will be dealing with will be launching a rigorous defense so that they can try to pay as little money as possible. One of the things they will do, as a part of that defense, is to check your social profile, as well as the social profiles of your family members and friends.
Here’s what they can do with it.
Undermine the Severity of your Injuries
As your attorneys we’re certainly aware that chronic pain does not mean you can’t ever get up and have any fun ever. We know there are good days and bad days. We know you might have 8 days of pain and one low-pain day where you decide to pop into a friend’s party for just 20 minutes.
The defense knows this too, but this won’t stop them from trying to spin that 10-second picture of you with a drink in your hand during that self-same 20 minutes into an 8 hour dance-off that “proves” you’re barely hurt at all.
Keep your friends from tagging you in photos. Keep them from posting photos of you at all. Don’t mention going to a party on your Twitter account. The less you can say about what you’re doing, the better.
Undermine the Severity of your Emotional Damages
Again, anyone human knows you can be suffering from severe PTSD as a result of your accident while still carrying on some normal life activities.
Yet post something happy and positive, and watch the defense spin it into a narrative about how you’re “not that emotionally compromised.” Suddenly your pain and suffering damages are shrinking, and you’re losing thousands upon thousands of dollars that you genuinely need to put your life together.
Undermine Your Story
Did you mention the accident on your social profile? If it contradicts your attorney’s official statement on the accident, even a little bit, then this can be used against you as well.
Remember, New Jersey is a contributory negligence state. Shifts in your story could shift percentages of responsibility, and your personal injury award can be reduced by that same percentage.
Again, that slip could cost you thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of dollars.
Best Bet?
Stay off social media entirely and instruct your family member and friends to keep you out of it as well. Watch what you say and do and be aware that until your case is done it’s best to play your cards close to your chest.
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You may not know it, but when you enter into a personal injury case you are inviting your attorney to create a narrative on your behalf. The narrative is generally a simple one: someone was negligent, you were hurt as a result of that negligence, and that negligence caused real harm that has a financial consequence.
As a result of that financial consequence, you should be compensated.
What you don’t know is that the insurance company who you will be dealing with will be launching a rigorous defense so that they can try to pay as little money as possible. One of the things they will do, as a part of that defense, is to check your social profile, as well as the social profiles of your family members and friends.
Here’s what they can do with it.
Undermine the Severity of your Injuries
As your attorneys we’re certainly aware that chronic pain does not mean you can’t ever get up and have any fun ever. We know there are good days and bad days. We know you might have 8 days of pain and one low-pain day where you decide to pop into a friend’s party for just 20 minutes.
The defense knows this too, but this won’t stop them from trying to spin that 10-second picture of you with a drink in your hand during that self-same 20 minutes into an 8 hour dance-off that “proves” you’re barely hurt at all.
Keep your friends from tagging you in photos. Keep them from posting photos of you at all. Don’t mention going to a party on your Twitter account. The less you can say about what you’re doing, the better.
Undermine the Severity of your Emotional Damages
Again, anyone human knows you can be suffering from severe PTSD as a result of your accident while still carrying on some normal life activities.
Yet post something happy and positive, and watch the defense spin it into a narrative about how you’re “not that emotionally compromised.” Suddenly your pain and suffering damages are shrinking, and you’re losing thousands upon thousands of dollars that you genuinely need to put your life together.
Undermine Your Story
Did you mention the accident on your social profile? If it contradicts your attorney’s official statement on the accident, even a little bit, then this can be used against you as well.
Remember, New Jersey is a contributory negligence state. Shifts in your story could shift percentages of responsibility, and your personal injury award can be reduced by that same percentage.
Again, that slip could cost you thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of dollars.
Best Bet?
Stay off social media entirely and instruct your family member and friends to keep you out of it as well. Watch what you say and do and be aware that until your case is done it’s best to play your cards close to your chest.