Social media is a way to keep in touch with your friends and acquaintances around the world. Many people treat their online profiles as a highlight reel of their daily lives, sharing the best and most exciting things that they experience.
However, sharing unpleasant experiences can draw a lot of attention and interaction with your profile. After a major car wreck, you may have dramatic images of the damage to your vehicle or the injuries that you suffered. You might think that showing those pictures online would be a great way to tell everyone in your life at once about the crash so that you don’t have to relive it repeatedly.
Unfortunately, what you share on social media could end up used as evidence against you in court or when negotiating insurance claims.
Online activity can serve as evidence against you
The courts will consider anything you share online as evidence in your case if the other party can show it is relevant. While you may think that your privacy settings protect you from an insurance company accessing your posts, you never know who might share or screenshot even private content.
Things that you openly share with the public are even easier for insurance adjusters or the other party involved in the crash to locate and access. From discussions of how tired you were before the crash to content that implies your injuries are not that severe, your online activity both before and after the crash could affect your claim rights.
Insurance companies are always eager to look for ways to reduce their financial liability, and attorneys representing the person who caused your crash or insurance companies often have a team member who will look for problematic content online to help them win cases.
Social media blackouts can help protect you
While you may rely on social media to stay in touch with others, you may need to take a brief hiatus while recovering from a car crash, negotiating an insurance claim or preparing for a civil lawsuit.
The less you share online, the less ammunition the other side may have. You don’t want the wrong content to diminish how much you receive in compensation. Identifying issues that could compromise your rights after a motor vehicle collision will help protect your right to an insurance claim or lawsuit.