Following a personal injury, it’s natural for many people to post about it on social media. As a personal injury lawyer, my clients ask me if posting about the accident on social media can jeopardize their claim.
The answer to this question is easily found by doing a Google search for “social media investigation services.” This search will or should frighten you if you have an insurance claim because it reveals a seemingly endless list of companies offering to conduct “social media investigations.”
It’s incredible how much information is accessible through the internet. The internet makes it is so easy to connect with family and friends through social media with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other platforms. It is common for people to share photographs, special events, accomplishments, or other occurrences in our lives. Unfortunately, a consequence of this vast sharing of personal information is that insurance companies search for information on social media to use when evaluating insurance claims such as car accidents, slip and falls, medical malpractice, and employment cases.
Your Social Media Posts Will Be Used Against You
Because the personal injury lawyers in our firm represent victims in these types of cases, we strongly advise our clients that the best protection from insurance companies snooping is to avoid sharing any details about their claim or legal case. For some, it’s not realistic to suggest “never post,” but it is important that you are very careful about everything you post because what you post online can be taken out of context, misused, or twisted into something that it’s not. You don’t want to give the insurance company any negative “evidence” to use against you.
Insurance Companies Conduct Social Media Investigations
If there is any doubt about insurance companies, adjustors, and defense lawyers monitoring social media, let’s go back to the Google search for “social media investigation services.” In promoting their services, the below descriptions are examples from a few social media investigative companies’ websites:
- “Social networking websites can be an investigator’s goldmine”
- “People love to share and promote themselves, what they’re doing, and with whom. For insurance professionals, this presents an excellent opportunity to leverage social media data to help save time and money”
- “Social media is a valuable investigative tool when seeking evidence or information about individuals or cases”
- “The information available about nearly every aspect of a person's life is worth the effort to unearth- and could be vital to your cause”
- “We can gain full access to public information and private information within the content of the pages, which may include photos, conversations, messages, others within the network”
These are chilling descriptions about how insurance companies scour social media when they investigate someone with a personal injury claim. This means you need to assume that anything and everything you have posted or will post is monitored by an insurance company or adjustor. If you have been injured in a NH car accident or any other personal injury, please call one of our experienced New Hampshire personal injury attorneys at (603) 288-1403 or fill out our online contact form.