An increasing number of people share every aspect of their lives on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and others. This tendency to publicize the minutia of a person’s life on social network sites can have a dark side. If you are involved in a serious car accident, tractor-trailer accident, SUV rollover accident or other serious motor vehicle collision, the insurance company for the other driver will almost certainly seek discovery of your social network sites for evidence that will help their insured avoid liability or reduce your damages. Insurance companies are increasingly mining pictures and comments on social network sites as a valuable source of evidence in auto accident lawsuits in Mississippi as well as other states.
There are many ways that social network content can compromise a personal injury lawsuit. Courts in several states have ordered injury victims in car accident lawsuits to produce access to their social network information on an increasing basis. Anyone who is involved in a Mississippi personal injury lawsuit should presume that any information on any of their social network sites would be available to the insurance company of the other driver for purposes of defending the lawsuit.
The insurance company may use information on a social network site to prove any of the following:
- Contributory Negligence: The insurance company may use damaging disclosures on your social media page to shift the blame for your car accident or injuries to you and reduce your recovery or in certain cases avoid liability entirely. It is important not to discuss the details of your accident with anyone but your Mississippi auto accident attorney. Disclosures of this kind may include posts that indicate you were not wearing a seat belt, were using your cell phone at the time of the accident or were exceeding the speed limit.
- Pre-Existing Condition: An insurance company may look for disclosures that suggest your injuries are linked to other prior incidents or medical conditions. If the insurance company can establish that your injuries were caused by a prior accident, this may result in a substantial reduction in damages. An example of this situation might include posts on a social media page about suffering back pain from a prior incident.
- Negative Image: The insurance company may look for evidence to make you appear unethical, immoral or otherwise unsympathetic to a jury. Publication of information about excessive drinking, drinking and driving, drug use or other types of information or pictures posted on your social website may be used to create a negative impression of you so that the jury is less inclined to award a substantial verdict.
- Contradicting Liability: It is always inadvisable to discuss the details of your Mississippi car accident on your social media site. Most people do not realize what types of details can damage a personal injury lawsuit. The insurance company may comb the details you provide on your social media site to develop factual evidence designed to disprove liability of their insured.
The best option is to pull your social media sites down entirely if you are involved in a Mississippi car accident lawsuit. If you are unwilling to go this far, you should at least avoid discussing any aspect of the car crash on your social network site. A Mississippi car accident victim should also be very careful about who you friend or engage in chats with on your social media site. An auto accident victim in Mississippi should always presume that all of the information and pictures posted on one’s social media site might be discoverable in a Mississippi personal injury lawsuit. At the Barrett Law Offices PLLC, our experienced Mississippi car accident lawyers represent injury victims throughout Mississippi. Our law firm has roots that reach back 75 years so contact us today for your free initial consultation at (662) 834-2376 to see how we can help.