Should You Avoid Social Media During Your Personal Injury Case?
Personal Injury Lawyer St. Paul, MN
One of the most common options when you have been injured by another person’s actions is to file a personal injury lawsuit. If you are considering taking this option, your head is probably filled with a huge number of questions. You should always speak with a personal injury attorney to get your questions answered, but this guide will answer one question in particular: “Should you stay off social media while your suit is active?”
Follow Your Attorney’s Advice
The answer to this question is actually more complicated than you might think. There is not a single, universal answer. In some situations, you should be free to use social media, while other situations require you to stay off of it. Your attorney will know whether or not social media can hurt your case, so you should always ask.
However, no matter what your situation is, you should absolutely never post about your suit on social media. Even aspects you think are harmless may have implications you never could have predicted. It is simply best to avoid saying even a single thing about your lawsuit as long as it is active.
When Social Media May Hurt You
If your lawsuit is such that posting on social media may hurt it, your attorney should be able to warn you of this aspect. The most common issue that may arise is in lawsuits where mental state is an issue. If you are claiming emotional trauma in your personal injury suit, then even mundane social media posts may refute that claim.
This is actually something that has happened in the past. Plaintiffs in personal injury cases have posted pictures of themselves spending time with their families. It seemed harmless at the time, but the defense in the trials used these posts to demonstrate that the plaintiffs were not as emotionally scarred as they claimed. This sometimes leads to the compensation being reduced, and it sometimes leads to the case being lost altogether.
You have to be careful about what you post, as even things that are tangentially related to the case may hurt it. For example, posting an image with your car in the background may refute evidence about damage to your vehicle after a car accident. This is a reason why some people voluntarily choose to avoid social media during their lawsuits, even if it is not strictly necessary. Remember to always discuss this matter with your personal injury lawyer in St. Paul, MN from Johnston Martineau, PLLP if you still have any questions.
