If you have made a personal injury claim, insurance companies and their representatives may be monitoring your social networking activity including you and your friends posts, blogs, photographs, and videos. Their mission is to discredit you and your claim, and minimize the amount they have to pay out. If you are making a personal injury claim assume that any posts, blogs, photographs, and videos that contradict your injuries will be used against you. However, if you are determined to stay on a social media platform (i.e. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ etc.) you should follow these rules:
1. Don’t post details about your claim, injuries, or recovery. This includes blogging, photographs, video, or responding to others’ comments about your claim or injuries;
2. Remove past posts that can be used to limit your claim (i.e. comments about a sore neck or back etc. that can be used as evidence that the incident in question wasn’t the sole cause of your present complaints);
3. Google yourself, and if there is something that concerns you contact your attorney immediately;
4. Don’t let friends post about you. You can assume such information will be assessed by insurance companies; and
5. Increase your privacy settings on social media platforms to help limit past, present, or future information that may hurt your claim.
However, the only way to insure that social media doesn’t affect your personal injury claim is to avoid it all together.
