Even though you might consider your social media your private place to post about everything happening in your life, you should reconsider posting about an accident, your injuries, and what you’ve been up to immediately following the accident. Your personal injury lawyer will likely give you instructions on what you should or shouldn’t post after an accident, or if you should put your account on private to limit who can access you.
When you hire a personal injury lawyer from the Law Office of Todd W. Burris, you can rest assured that they will guide you through how best to use your social media accounts, and will look into the accounts of the other parties to help build your case. Social media can ruin your personal injury claim, and to understand why, let’s look at how social media is used during your trial.
Kentucky Rules of Evidence
In Kentucky trials, typically statements made outside of court are considered hearsay and are inadmissible, meaning that they can’t be included in a case. However, social media posts are an exception to the hearsay rule and are admissible in court. This means that they can be included to show that a witness was lying or has left out details of their story.
Not only can the party’s statements on social media be included in a personal injury trial, but relevant posts by friends and family can also be of use. Even statements that don’t seem to be contradictory to the case can be interpreted differently, which is why combing through social media can be a fruitful tactic for personal injury lawyers trying to prove or disprove a party’s previous statements to police, insurance adjusters, or attorneys.
What Can Be Collected from Social Media
In a personal injury claim, your lawyer will collect all information they can to build you the strongest possible case. Social media accounts are one place to gather information for a case, as the opposing party might have posted contradicting information on their accounts. Here are some ways your personal injury lawyer might use social media in a personal injury trial:
- Create a timeline of events. Since social media posts have a timestamp, a personal injury lawyer can use posts to create a timeline of events to show before and after the accident. This timeline can either confirm what happened or show contradictions in stories.
- Disprove injuries. Posts, pictures, and videos can also confirm or disprove injuries that a party claimed to suffer from the accident. For example, if a person is posting walking easily even though they claim their leg is broken, then a personal injury lawyer would take that into account and use it against them in a trial.
- Disprove previous statements. Even though we usually use social media to present the best version of ourselves and hide the bad, that can be harmful when a personal injury lawyer gets a hold of the misleading posts. If a person is posting that they’re okay and happy after an accident, a lawyer could use that to show that previous statements to the police and insurance adjusters saying they were hurt and upset were false.
- Show a party isn’t a reliable source. If one party posts about what they think happened in the accident, not sticking to the facts and posting their opinions, and it proves to be wrong compared to what the police and other investigations found, then they could be considered an unreliable source.
Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer from the Law Office of Todd W. Burris
When you have a personal injury claim and need an attorney on your side who will listen and fully investigate your accident, then you should hire a lawyer from the Law Office of Todd W. Burris to represent you. Our team is experienced in personal injury claims and stays up to date on state laws and what can be used in court.
We understand that modern day cases can be even more complex with aspects like social media, which is why we are dedicated to looking into all aspects of your case to ensure we are building a claim that includes all possible angles. Reach out to us today so we can start on your claim.
