Protect your Indianapolis, IN Personal Injury, Accident, or Wrongful Death Claim – Refrain from Posting on Social Media
The best advice an experienced Indiana personal injury lawyer can give you: “Refrain from posting on social media.”
If you have hired an Indiana personal injury lawyer for a claim of an accident with injuries, your attorney will ask you to stop posting on social networking sites. It is of no concern how harmless or irrelevant your posts may seem to your case. Insurance company defendants are known to infer a great deal of information — and more importantly, misinformation —from ‘harmless’ photographs taken out of the context of your daily life.
The legal term “discovery” means a formal pre-trial investigation. Attorneys for claimants and defendants use the discovery approach to build their claim or make their defense. Instruments used by attorneys in the discovery process may include Interrogatories, Request for Admissions and Request for Production of Documents. Despite privacy concerns, several state and federal courts have ruled that pictures, postings and messages transmitted via social media, i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Tik Tok, Gettr, YouTube, blogs, and other online networking sites, may be compelled in the discovery process. In other words, you may be asked to turn over social profiles (private and public), posts and images that you or your “friends” have posted online. If defense can make the case that previous posts could be relevant,this may include postings prior to your accident.
Penalties for Spoliation of Evidence
I should caution you about ‘cleaning up’ or deactivating your social networking sites.
In a wrongful death case in Virginia, a plaintiff received monetary sanctions from the Court in the amount of $180,000 for “spoliation” or tampering with the evidence. The plaintiff removed 16 photos from his Facebook account. Although the jury ultimately found on behalf of the Plaintiff, his monetary award was greatly reduced by that amount. In addition, his attorney was sanctioned $522,000 for instructing his client to destroy his page.
Lawyers practicing in the state of Indiana must abide by the Indiana Rule of Professional Conduct. Section 3.4 of the rules states:
“A lawyer shall not unlawfully obstruct another party’s access to evidence or unlawfully alter, destroy or conceal a document or other material having potential evidentiary value. A lawyer shall not counsel or assist another person to do any such act.”
Sound Rules for Social Media Posts
An experienced personal injury or wrongful death lawyer may ask you to refrain from further online posting but should never ask you to hide, clean-up or remove posts, messages or photos which you or someone you know has already posted. The following are common sense rules to abide by if you have a personal injury claim:
- Do not talk about your case to anyone except your attorney;
- Do not accept any “friend” requests from people you don’t personally know;
- Do not post any photos of yourself online; and
- Do not hide, remove or in any way destroy any online postings that were made by or about you until your case has been disposed.
Lawyers experienced in accident with injury cases
Ward & Ward Personal Injury Lawyers has more than a century of legal experience with personal injury and wrongful death claims. Our firm receives no legal fees or expenses unless we collect damages on your behalf. Call Charlie Ward today for a free evaluation of your claim.
By Charlie Ward
cpw@wardlawfirm.com
Ward & Ward & Ward Personal Injury Lawyers Personal Injury Lawyers
728 S Meridian St
Indianapolis, IN 46225
317-639-9501
